Free Republic

SAN DIEGO -- In 1998, retired Special Forces operators forced CNN to apologize for a story alleging that American troops had used nerve gas in Laos during a secret 1970 mission called Operation Tailwind. Although Special Forces alumni responding to the story used Web-based technologies to communicate with each other and with CNN, blogs did not then exist. Slandered veterans could not talk with each other in real time, or expect help from anyone outside their own circles. Nevertheless, these experts in "force multiplication" succeeded in getting the story's producer sacked. One year later, Pyra Labs added Blogger software to...

...CBS has dismissed calls for an internal investigation into its reporting of the story, arguing that it was thoroughly reviewed before broadcast. "I'm confident in the process of vetting that got the story on air. When we say we continue to report the story you can be sure we're being conscientious in responding to these allegations," says CBS News President Andrew Heyward. CBS may offer further evidence in support of its story as early as today. The stakes are high for "60 Minutes," the undisputed gold standard in television news.... Its longtime producer, Don Hewitt, 81, has retired unenthusiastically, and...

The Cable News Network and its parent company, AOL-Time-Warner, have refused to settle a $100 million lawsuit filed by former U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers for allegedly defaming their character in a newsmagazine broadcast, leading the plaintiffs to continue pursuing relief. The lawsuit stems from a June 7, 1998, "NewStand" broadcast by CNN that claimed U.S. covert operators during the Vietnam War used sarin nerve gas to kill American military defectors in Laos. Time magazine is also named in the suit because it published similar information about the action, dubbed "Operation Tailwind," which took place Sept. 11-14, 1970. But as...