LA TIMES: No Disputing It: Blogs Are Major Players (FreeRepublic.Com & Buckhead Mentioned!)

The LA Times ^ | Sept. 12, 2004 | Peter Wallsten

[West Coast Conservative]

These days, CBS News anchor Dan Rather and his colleagues at the network's magazine program "60 Minutes II" are enduring an unusual wave of second-guessing by some of the public and fellow journalists.

For that, they can thank "Buckhead."

It was a late-night blog posting by this mystery Netizen that first questioned the validity of documents Rather cited Wednesday as proof that George W. Bush did not fulfill his National Guard duty more than 30 years ago.

Buckhead refuses to further identify himself, other than dropping hints that he is a male who lives on the East Coast — preferring to proclaim that the scramble to verify the contentions in his posting marks an extraordinary achievement for a medium that has operated more as an underground world of ideological venting than a source of legitimate news.

But Buckhead is vehement about one thing: He acted alone when he posted, to the conservative website FreeRepublic.com, what was widely believed to be the first allegation that the CBS report relied on documents that could have been forged.

"Absolutely, positively, on my own, sitting at my computer in my bedroom just before midnight — but not in my pajamas," he wrote in an e-mail exchange with The Times. "But once I posted the comment to Free Republic I was no longer working alone, and that is the real point of the story about the story about the story."

That story began Wednesday, 19 minutes after the "60 Minutes II" broadcast began, when another FreeRepublic poster, TankerKC, noted that the documents were "not in the style that we used when I came into the USAF…. Can we get a copy of those memos?"

[beyond the sea]

I just see Tony as a softy, a nice softy, but a softy indeed. This CBS guy was lying as well as Lanny Davis that night. It was sickening.

[Maurice Tift]

... who said we're "a bastion of right-wing lunacy".

  R i g h t  W i n g  L u n a c y - 1
  C B S  N e w s - 0

[aloysius89]

Tony Snow is alright, I guess. I used to read his stuff in the Detroit papers. He's what passes for a conservative in Detroit.

[Smartaleck]

"It was amazing Thursday to watch the documents story go from FreeRepublic.com, a bastion of right-wing lunacy, to Drudge to the mainstream media in less than 12 hours," said Jim Jordan, a strategist for independent Democratic groups opposed to Bush.

"But apparently the entire thing was cooked up by a couple of amateurs on Free Republic. The speed with which it moved was breathtaking."

Within 90 minutes of that post, the Power Line site was linked to perhaps the best-known conservative site of all — the Drudge Report, made famous when Matt Drudge took a lead role in the first reports on the relationship between then-President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

"That was a quantum jump in awareness," said Scott Johnson. "It was wildly circulating in the blogosphere until Drudge linked us. Then it was instantly known to a million people, and it was all of a sudden a legitimate story."

In a bit of irony.......wonder how many people (lunitics? LOL) first came to FR via Drudge? Who is this Jordan dude anyway? ...former Kerry campaign manager Jim Jordan (apparently fired by Kerry and replaced by Cahill).... USAToday Article and pic

[beyond the sea]

Freeper Partisan Political Pajamas *with optional coffee proof bib for those LOL moments.

I've spewed three times reading FR this morning........so many extremely funny and WISE people!

[Sal]

I wonder how many other news items have been first reported on Free Republic.

Remember when the Islamonazi snipers were terrorizing the nation while Chief Moose had everybody looking for a white man in a white van?

As soon as someone in Moose's organization released the information that "word is bond" was written on one of those taro cards, Hispanarepublicana alerted FR that we were really looking for perps from an offshoot of Nation of Islam. It was something like an hour from when that information became available and long before the MSM yawned and opened their eyes.

[stands2reason]

Ya know, I'd pay for the costume rental if one of ur enterprising
NYC Freepers would Freep CBS by dressing up as Grim Reaper with that quote on his sign!

[Miss Marple]

I am glad to see that someone in the MSM made the attempt to document this event, even if it is tinged by liberal comments.

Why? Because I have been telling people about FR for years, but somehow they don't understand how important it is. Maybe if they READ about it in the newspaper they will believe me! LOL!

[snooker]

The Berlin wall of news is falling over. Stand back and watch history in the making.

MSM thinks they have all the free speech rights to themselves ... but there mistakes are many.

First mistake is thinking they are smarter than everyone else
Second mistake thinking they have more knowledge than everyone else
Last mistake, not knowing how to use google ... they are screwed.

[Vinnie]

I didn't read the article as I'm not going to register. But from some of the replies I gather that the DNC is going to run with 'Rove and the RNC deceived us'.

I'd like to make a leeeetle point.

The DNC and Kerry had the memos in their hands. The actual evidence.

Yet they blame Pres. Bush for lying and being deceived about WMDs on evidence he was getting, for all practical purposes word of mouth.(others read the evidence and reported to him)

I hope they do run with the 'deceived' line.

[Drango]

It was amazing Thursday to watch the documents story go from FreeRepublic.com, a bastion of right-wing lunacy,

Jim Jordan can kiss my clymer...

[sd-joe]

>> "The Democrats just love to become victims when they get caught with their thumb in the pie." <<

It was not their "thumb", and it was not the "pie".

[sd-joe]

>>"The LA Times is wrong>"<<

Really. Next thing, you are going to tell us the sun rises in the East!!!!!

[aloysius89]

First mistake is thinking they are smarter than everyone else

My boss gets Time Magazine. The thing that bugs me week after week about that mag is their attitude that they are the priestesses and prophets of the truth, which they will reveal to us, the great unwashed. Like when they "clarify" some issue with:
"These are the Charges and these are the FACTS."

Like they have a clue, let alone the facts.

[snooker]

At some point it becomes a complete waste of time to read the MSM. For my part, bloggers are making much more sense and offer a far more intelligent read than these MSM partisan hacks.

I know of what you speak, I have a few friends who are the same way. Lost in the past.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

a bastion of right-wing lunacy

Jim Jordan quoted above with his description of Free Republic. We ARE sanity. We ARE reason. We ARE truth. Only someone under the direct influence of Satan would would make such an accusation.

In ANY war, including this one about TRUTH itself, the first casualty is ...

[LibLieSlayer]

"I'm afraid we're about to go thru one of those 15-minutes-of-fame things. MSMs are going to be trolling FR cherry picking nutty rants and comments trying to make us look like a bunch of lunatics".

What possible embarrassment could the MSM cause to us, if they reprint lunatic ravings of the DU trolls that visit here? ;-)

LLS

[harrycarey]

From the article:

"But how do we know Buckhead is really not Karl Rove…. "

[Caipirabob]

Oh come on, everybody knows that Buckhead is Rush Limbaugh. Jeeez...

[TomGuy]

MSM are learning that the Internet is a powerful force to contend with.

MSM tried to bypass the SBV ads. Via the Internet, nearly half the adult population in the USA saw those ads anyway.

MSM sees their numbers slipping more and more. Even cable FoxNews has exceeded the network news in viewership of 'newsworthy' events.

No wonder Hillary wants a gatekeeper for the Internet. It is the biggest force of raw, unfiltered freedom that has existed since the Old West was civilized.

'They' want to reign in the Internet--because it can uncover their lies at the speed of live. With all its capacity for misuse and being a rumor mill, it is just as much a force for truth. CBS and Dan Rather just found that out. Had they been on their toes, they would have realized that years earlier. Now, 'they' are becoming secondary.