I am bemused this morning by the subtext to the forged text: that Dan Rather, 60 Minutes, and CBS News were burned, fooled, conned, duped, or otherwise headfaked into this scandal by a person, persons, campaign or candidates unknown but perhaps to be named later.
This is just sad hogwash. Do we all recall the W.C. Fields bromide "You can't cheat an honest man?" It is an assertion of dubious use when it comes to the ilk of the Mordant Media such as CBS. They are in the business of cheating honest men on a constant basis -- readers, viewers, other hapless members of the great mass audience for whom they have a barely disguised contempt.
This little inner cabal at CBS put Barnes and the documents on both 1) because they could, 2) because they wanted the documents to be real so badly that seriously questioning them never entered their minds, 3) they've gotten away with it before and so the odds were they'd skate again. 4) "The truth? The truth is what we say it is."
To say the elements of the report that were false are mistakes is plain foolishness. The principles involved at CBS news were not interested for a nanosecond in whether or not their report was true, they were only interested in whether or not it would damage the President. If it did, they were going to run with it -- No. Matter. What.
If one of the "requirements" of journalism is to "authenticate" your documents, hire a couple of "experts" to tell you what you want to know. In the realm of "Professional Experts" -- i.e. consultants -- the first skill is determining what the client really wants to know and then telling him that.
If another of the "requirements" of journalism is to get an independent source to 'verify' that the typed documents from the personal file represented the views of the writer (deceased), you have a couple of choices. One of which is to select a source you know will confirm what you want to hear. A choice that you don't make if what you want is confirmation and not truth, is to call the widow of the deceased and learn that the man could not type to begin with.
The "breaking news made them do it" defense is best encapsulated by Kevin Drum who, having eaten his crow pie early and in a small slice, is still resisting what his lying eyes are telling him at "a title="The Washington Monthly" href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/">The Washington Monthly: "I hope CBS hasn't gotten burned by crude forgeries, but like they say, hope is not a plan."
Well, Kevin, "hope in one hand and ____ in the other and see which fills up first." To say, at this point, that the CBS Gang that couldn't report straight is somehow "the victim" of this fraud is just to diffuse and obfuscate what really is going on here.
CBS is just one of the largest duchies in the unelected, self-appointed, self-perpetuating shadow government that we call Major Media. With the rise of the media of the people, this government is under attack and seeks to use every means to underscore its importance and its power. The chief campaign in this current war is the defeat of George Bush. Not really because John Kerry will be better for the country, but because only by causing the defeat can the major media prop up its power and underscore its importance.
The CBS concrew wanted the story to be true and, knowing it was flimsy and dubious, went ahead anyway because they have come to believe that they have the power to create "truth." There is a lot of evidence, now fading into the past, that bolsters this assumption. After all, millions more saw the 60 Minutes broadcast than will read the press or see the other networks reports on the forgeries. So, net-net, CBS is ahead in promulgating its lie into millions of minds.
This is not to say they will always be ahead. If the last 24 hours show anything it reveals how weak the remaining fortifications of the major media are. One internet user with the handle "Buckhead" writes a short comment in post number 47 of a Free Republic thread -- Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard. Within twenty-four hours this observation has reached out of the blogsphere and is beginning to close in around the throats of CBS News, the Kerry Campaign, and the Democratic Party. Gag reactions are expected this evening and throughout the next few weeks.
What does "Buckhead" think about everything that has happened? "Yes - it has been amazing, beyond belief. I've been grinning so much the back of my head hurts."
I'm sure there are a lot of heads in pain at CBS News today, but not from grinning. Now, if we could just get those heads to roll we'd know the Day of the Blog has arrived.
Posted by Vanderleun at September 10, 2004 9:26 AM | TrackBack"My dear old grandfather Litcock said, just before they sprung the trap, you can't cheat an honest man, never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump."
From his 1939 book, W.C.Fields for President.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 10, 2004 1:06 PMYou're a smart guy. I actually like your stuff. But riddle me this, how does Dan's manly refusal to abandon ship tonite fit in?
Granted, he didn't address much other than to pose the possibility of some machine to figured out later could in fact have made the memos. The reset was argument from authority and stonewall.
But why? Do they have to do this before they fold so they don't look like totally craven fools when they do?
Cheers
Posted by: jdwill at September 10, 2004 4:08 PMThey don't have to fold. They can stonewall and just wait for it to pass over. What, really, is the downside? Those that don't believe them has long since stopped believing them for the most part. Those that don't care will continue to watch if and as they will. Those that do care will be either in the Bush or the Kerry camp and will care according to their lights.
The down side is admitting they got caught.
Posted by: Van der Leun at September 10, 2004 4:50 PMA choice that you don't make if what you want is confirmation and not truth, is to call the widow of the deceased and learn that the man could not type to begin with.
Or even better, you can call the widow, hear these things, and just IGNORE them because they don't fit the story line and you've already written the story. Journalists. Yeesh. (I am reminded of certain conversations in a certain conference, I am.)
About Rather's stonewalling tonight: the man seems to me to display a strong sense of entitlement around this issue. He expects with rock-hard expectation that he will get away with it. I ask myself, what experiences could foster such a strong expectation? And I answer, the experience of having gotten away with it in the past. With scams just as obvious.
Someone noted that if this had happened ten years ago we'd never have realized that the documents were forged. And they were right.
So the question arises in my fevered brain:
How often has Dan Rather gotten away with this sort of thing in past decades, that he expects to get away with this too? Which stories have involved "evidence" of the structural integrity of wet Kleenex? What, that we take for granted, didn't actually happen?
Urk.
Posted by: jaed at September 10, 2004 7:28 PMThat first paragraph is of course a quote from an earlier post and should have been in italics. (Gerard, you wanna turn on basic HTML?)
Posted by: jaed at September 10, 2004 7:29 PMOh that's just too good. The Day of the Blog. I'm gonna be using that phrase for the rest of my life.
Someone should do a full-length flash horror movie with this title.
Design cartoon characters to represent the individual blogs, and show them beating the crap out of the CBS logo.
Or, hell...this isn't a flash movie. This is a DOOM MOD! Dan Rather running for his life, picking up Talking Points that refresh his life bar. Cringing behind his desk as the American Digest Eagle comes around the corner...
Posted by: Michael Duff at September 11, 2004 8:35 AMThat cartoon is a great idea. Another thing you could do is show a bunch of bloggers doing the work of Creative Response Concepts for them. You guys don't need big PR executive cash either, you'll thrive off your own sense of self-satisfaction.
Posted by: Cody at September 11, 2004 6:59 PM"The End of the Beginning..."
So CBS News and its celebrity newshounds are for the stocks... maybe. Bloggers may well congratulate each other for some fine work, not just questioning, but the slogging persistent research to track down people that have the expertise, experience, credentials, and nominal impartiality to provide definitive tests that CBS hadn't the balls to do.
Still, it might be premature to think the Old Media are dead and gone.
In 1985, Japan Air Lines flight 123 lost its rudder along with a great deal of its tail structures and all hydraulic control just 12 minutes after take-off. By heroic measures, the pilot and co-pilot were able to keep the plane flying for another half an hour, before crashing into a mountainside.
Similarly, there is enormous inertia contained in the aggregated institutions we are calling the Old Media. It's clear that they too have managed to continue flying long after their own loss of rudders and control.
(the rest of my rant is on my blog...http://apsnyblog.blogspot.com)
Posted by: David March, animator & fiddler at September 18, 2004 12:24 AMI mean there's a lot more work to be done before bloggers can claim to have slain the dragon...
It might just die from neglect, though, considering the drop in audience numbers.
Posted by: David March, animator & fiddler at September 18, 2004 12:28 AM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.