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?"

[combat_boots]

Atta boys to buckhead and TankerKC!

National Newsmakers!

[mitch5501]

"At some point it becomes a complete waste of time to read the MSM."

It certainly does.FR is the No1 news site as far as I'm concerned.

You not only hear it more often than not first,you also get to see it picked apart to within an inch of it's life.

As soon as you start looking at the world a little further than the end of your own nose the sooner you realize the MSM is little more than gruel for the mind.

and gruel gives me the $h!t$

[dbehsman]

You can have my fonts when you pry them from my cold dead fingers!

All your fonts are belong to us.

Hold mu' font alert!

Thank you for bearing with me. I've been saving these for a couple of days, and felt that I would bust if I did not post them!

[q_an_a]

the good news is the last line of the story asks the musical question - Is it possible that Buckhead is Karl Rove? The internet is changing the world - it has problems but DanBlather can't get away with crap so easy any more.

[combat_boots]

Sssshhhhh. Don' tell 'em. Wer' jus' ole' fellers havin us a jaw now. They kin think we's jus' poor lil' ole' ignurants.

After all, isn't it easier to dismiss those you believe beneath you than to ante up to a discussion with those who challenge your point, let alone your authority?

[Timeout]

Howlin:
See my comment to you here
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1213751/posts?page=29#29

I believe those USA Today "new" memos may have been put there by hackers.
___________________________________________________

Howlin/Miss Marple:
Throughout all this, am I the only one reminded of that hillarious Saturday night the Guild was born? We spent all night investigating Hillary, the White House silverware and all their "gifts". Glory days!

[IndyTiger]

FR is the No 1 news site as far as I'm concerned.

FR has become my first place on the web to go each time I log on. When there is a breaking news story, I can find all there is to know on FR. No longer do I have to sort through commercials, know-nothing talking heads, etc. I can simply log on to FR and participate in analysis and commentary with people all over the world.

[Cricket24]

OR it could be a reference to that dead animal on my wall!!
That's what the MSM is becoming...a dead animal!

[Buckhead]

Yes, I do live on the East coast.

I have to give the guy credit, this is a fairly straight story.

[TomB]

Blowing my own horn here, I'm pretty sure we beat Andrew Sullivan on Mo Dowd's "Ellipsegate":

---

To: Steve_Seattle

Did Bush actually say "They're not a problem anymore"? If he did, it would be out of character, since he has never seemed to believe that terrorism can be completely wiped out, only curtailed and - hopefully - kept out of the USA. I would like to know what words Dowd omitted where those dots are; I would not be surprised if those words completely changed the meaning of the "They're not a problem anymore" comment.

You are correct, my friend. It seems Ms. Dowd is jealous of all the attention the Times is heaping up Jayson Blair, so she is going to try the "make up a quote" thing herself.

Here is a link to the speech and here is the ACTUAL quote:

"Al Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore."

This is a complete, total and absolute lie on Dowd's part. We always have a laugh here at how she manages to massage the truth, but this is different. This is FRAUD.

29 posted on 05/14/2003 1:31:22 PM EDT by TomB

[TomB]

Did Bush actually say "They're not a problem anymore"? If he did, it would be out of character, since he has never seemed to believe that terrorism can be completely wiped out, only curtailed and - hopefully - kept out of the USA. I would like to know what words Dowd omitted where those dots are; I would not be surprised if those words completely changed the meaning of the "They're not a problem anymore" comment.

[snooker]

As a computer type I have been doing the Internet since there were only 12 sites, WOW that was a long time ago. But the net started as a way for collaborative research to be done between scientists.

Now sites like FR are doing the research on just about everything. Not science, but research nonetheless. The promise of the original Internet is being fulfilled. It's a good thing, as MS would say. The funny part is the MSM is becoming just so much day old road kill. Bloggers are taking over as columnists. You read who you like, not who the MSM chooses to print. It's easy to distill real hard news from the trash you get in the wires.

When people collaborate on subjects you simply get the most reasoning power that can be brought to bear on a subject. A varied audience like FR is ideal because of the diversity of participants. There might just be some life left in the 'ole US Republic yet.

[NeonKnight]

They think we are all a bunch of backward hicks that have no idea how to do anything.

...and some of us are. LOL! ...all hail the collective power of the people.

[Iowa_Clone]

Note to LA Times - it's not simply bloggers, it's truth that makes the bloggers persuasive.

[andyandval]

The famous one! How's your email inbox? Just curious.

[Glenn]

They fail to recognize the significance of a diverse group of citizens with varying skills

Read "The Wisdom of Crowds" by John Surowiecki. It's about that very subject. A darned good read. It opened my eyes to the subject.

[Skywarner]

"Note to LA Times - it's not simply bloggers, it's truth that makes the bloggers persuasive."

And that's the problem that the MSM is having coping with us here on FR and in the blogsphere in general - the MSM can't handle the truth if it goes against their agenda.

[mhking]

"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.

"That's not to say the documents didn't deserve examination. But apparently the entire thing was cooked up by a couple of amateurs on Free Republic. The speed with which it moved was breathtaking."

"All hail 'Buckhead,' " wrote one posting to Free Republic.

"Here, here," wrote another. "But how do we know Buckhead is really not Karl Rove…. "

I'll be damned.

Even in talking us up, they still have to get a slam in.

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[BunnySlippers]

Yikes! And we can't even post the whole article! :)

[ravinson]

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

How do we know that Buckhead isn't Serpenthead being paid by Ex-President Cokehead to keep his wife busy while he gets more head from airheads?

[searchandrecovery]

cooked up by a couple of amateurs

I'll take a couple of smart "amateurs" over a stupid/bought expert any day. And I don't trust the Old Media to provide unbiased news any more. Nice work, Buckwheat, Buckhead, whatever (and Howler, too).