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?"

[dawn53]

Hey Buckhead, oops, I mean Karl, good work! (end/sarcasm)

They failed to point out that it was Free Republic that scooped the MSM on the Shuttle breakup.

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

Does anybody keep a list?

They fail to recognize the significance of a diverse group of citizens with varying skills, connected in "realtime" with the power of the internet at their disposal.

[Political Junkie Too]

"And what happens when this stuff gets into the mainstream, and it eventually turns out that the '60 Minutes' documents were perfectly legitimate...

How's that for a closing thought?

-PJ

[beyond the sea]

Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt --

When the FAMOUS post # 47 the other day on the FR thread first proved the forgery, it was posted by "Buckhead" as is mentioned above.

Hmmmmmmmmm. Col. "Buck" Staudt.

;-)

[beyond the sea]

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

See post # 23.

;-)

[kcvl]

"And what happens when this stuff gets into the mainstream, and it eventually turns out that the '60 Minutes' documents were perfectly legitimate..."


The same thing that happens everyday when stuff gets into the mainstream media that aren't true. As if everything they print is factual. Not by a long shot, oh holier than thou, LAT.

[Keith in Iowa]

Over here!!

[Timeout]

LOL!

And what happens when this stuff gets into the mainstream, and it eventually turns out that the '60 Minutes' documents were perfectly legitimate...

...never forget, theirs is a campaign based on H-O-P-E!

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.

Jim Robinson needs to post a "Welcome MSMs" thread informing them about FR.

[billhilly]

"Did anyone at the slimes get permission to print this in their 'for profit' publication?"

Good question. I'll bet the writer registered to see what FR was like.

You can be sure that media will monitor FR on a regular basis now, just as they have used DRUDGE for the past several years.

[hewhowaits]

Bugmenot.com comes in very handy for times like these.
rmo

[lainde]

Obligatory Freepers rock BUMP!

[Mo1]

"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.

right-wing lunacy??

amateurs ??

Gee .. looks like they just insulted us

[hewhowaits]

god I'm slow
hehe

[zarf]

But apparently the entire thing was cooked up by a couple of amateurs on Free Republic.

These guys still don't get it.

[not_apathetic_anymore]

They fail to recognize the significance of a diverse group of citizens with varying skills, connected in "realtime" with the power of the internet at their disposal.

I'd only add that it's a diverse group of citizens willing to fact check their stories for them connected in "realtime" etc...

[BluH2o]

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

It's right up at the top in the 'Rat playbook ... I'm curious to see how Rather, after standing by his story on Friday evening, spins his way out of it this coming week. Will he use the Bush operatives set me up defense?

[Howlin]

Look what we have done..........LOL.

[Howlin]

Did anyone at the slimes get permission to print this in their 'for profit' publication?

Freepers have LONG memories, too.

[Banjoguy]

"Buckhead"..could be a reference to neighborhood in Atlanta.

[spodefly]

This exposure means we will be inundated with trolls and cut-outs. Man the turrets.

[Howlin]

The LA Times is wrong; he does not live on the East Coast.