This was just a shot across your bow,Media Fiends.
Prepare to be boarded!
Posted on 09/20/2004 5:33:17 PM PDT by Vision Thing
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Internet bloggers have drawn blood and American journalism may never be the same.
To hear some press experts tell it, CBS's admission on Monday that it was duped into using questionable documents about President Bush's National Guard service during the Vietnam War was a watershed moment brought on by a small army of Internet-based commentators known as bloggers.
Their insistence, from the moment that CBS aired its report almost two weeks ago, that the documents were fake turned the question into a national issue ending with Rather, CBS and the American media establishment in a state of deep embarrassment.
Orville Schell, dean of the school of journalism at the University of California in Berkeley, said CBS's admission of error after days of stonewalling was "a landmark moment for the balance between the blogosphere and mainstream media."
Bloggers were the first to challenge the authenticity of the documents and the first to publish detailed examinations of the evidence by dozens of self-declared experts, some of them with Republican party ties.
"The credibility of the media has taken another hit, especially when you consider the story is not Dan Rather but President Bush's service in the National Guard," Schell said.
That latter story -- that said George W. Bush ducked military service in Vietnam by entering the Guard and then getting special treatment thanks to his powerful father -- has been lost in the welter of complaints about the CBS story.
It was not the first time that bloggers have stuck.
Often working anonymously, bloggers have fanned the flames of controversies ranging from whether Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry deserved his Vietnam medals to whether Republican Trent Lott should remain a Senate leader after praising a segregationist.
Schell and former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan, among others, say there is a media revolution under way.
Writing in this week's Time magazine, Sullivan said, "The Web has done one revolutionary thing to journalism. It has made the price of entry into the media market minimal. In days gone by, you needed a small fortune to start up a simple magazine or newspaper. Now you need a laptop and a modem."
Steven Miller, who teaches broadcast journalism at New Jersey's Rutgers University, said CBS fell victim to the economics and cut throat competition in television news. "Unfortunately, the truth seems to be taking a back seat to ratings, and this time, CBS got caught up in it," Miller told Reuters.
But Tom Goldstein, former dean of Columbia University's School of Journalism, dismissed the notion that CBS's dilemma was a sign that American journalism has become more sloppy in recent years.
Instead, Goldstein said Rather's report was another example of bad things happening to good news organizations. "They had the best in the business on it, and they got duped and there but for the grace of God go you and I."
Independent network news analyst Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the daily Tyndall Report, said the apparent forgery of the memos alone does not necessarily discredit the substance of Rather's overall story on Bush's service record.
But Goldstein, Miller and Tyndall all questioned CBS News' judgment in going with Rather's report in the first place, even if the documents had turned out to be authentic.
"It's another WMD, another weapon of mass distraction. That's what this whole campaign has turned out to be," Miller said, adding that "somebody out there is trying to keep this running." (additional reporting by Steve Gorman)
And it seems Reuters did not mention the Free Republic's role in the controversy, so not only are they lagging, but their reporting is far from comprehensive and complete.
Interesting read.
First Drudge broke the blue dress.
Now Buckhead.
Gives me hope for the future of journalism.
(BTW, isn't always liberals who complain that the media is getting too consolidated and in the hands of too few people?)
Hey, Reuters. Your next.
This writer hasn't stopped trying to say the memos are "fake but true," to use the phrase from the NY Times.
This was just a shot across your bow,Media Fiends.
Prepare to be boarded!
It was the shock heard round the newsworld.
Sorry I can't help it! Somebody stop me.......
CBS was not really duped, its more like they were a willing accomplice.
Don't forget the pajamas!
It won't matter. Rather'll survive and by the time the Nov. ratings period comes around again, CBSNews will have rebounded.
Boy, oh, boy, democrats and Damn Blather should never underestimate the power of the little people. There is a growing tide of conservatism in this country, I truly believe it.
So, who actually gets credit for this? I've seen FreeRepublic and Buckhead's name in news stories. Yeah, baby!
I bet Dan the Man and them other rat bastards will be thinking twice before they pull that stunt again. The bloggers and FreeRepublic and others will be watching.
Aargh, matey, make Damn Blather walk the plank.
They did not get duped. Their own experts told them the documents were fishy.
They went with documents they knew might be fake in order to run the story because they were desperate to arrest Kerry's slide in the polls.
It's as simple as that. Nobody was duped.
"Steven Miller, who teaches broadcast journalism at New Jersey's Rutgers University, said CBS fell victim to the economics and cut throat competition in television news."No, Steven. CBS fell victim to hubris and denial.
(You must have dozed off during History 101.)
They have managed to institute people of the liberal persuasion in all focal points of the major networks.
The free ride is over.
And hillary-if you are reading this-we are going to be all over you should you run. We know you.
Rush made a great point today that lends some credence to your claim. If CBS were really duped, they'd be pissed, because someone intentionally endangered their so-called credibility. Instead, they calmly issue both an admission of being duped and an apology. This is not the behavior of someone who has been played like a fiddle.
Not a chance.
The one unimpeachable source CBS swore backed the story is a fraud, as CBS now claims. Taking CBS at its word (very hard these days; Burkett is probably just the fall guy in a bigger picture), how can a "trusted" news organization ignore such obvious flaws in its source (Burkett has an anti-Bush history that a seventh grader researching a term paper could find in an hour), overlook even more apparent flaws in the proffered documents, pooh-pooh stated qualms about the reliabilty and lack of provenance of the memos, and ignore double-checking other sources to stress test the story (the secretary, the Killian family, Staudt, etc.)?
The answer is that Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are complicit, incompetent or otherwise unfit for the responsiblity that comes with managing a major news division. (By the way, what do you think Mapes was doing while she was working on this story for five years? Talking incessantly to ONE person?)
CBS has embarrassed itself for the last time with this "release." Even the New York Times had the sense to terminate those associated with the Jayson Blair fiasco. I cannot imagine many viewers or affilaites remaining with CBS after this unless swift and appropriate action is taken at CBS News.
I earlier posted that the Rathergate episode would become a case study for journalism schools about the dangers of reposing too much autonomy and lack of accountability in a single person. That case study will now be expanded to business schools to address the economic impact of failed brand crisis management. Successful management will be identified (Tylenol--immediate acknowledgement and recall; NYT firing all associated with Blair and installing public integrity ombudsman) and contrasted with massive failures that led to severe devaluation of brands (CBS News/60 Minutes)
I predict Rather will not be around to call the election this year.
Instead, Goldstein said Rather's report was another example of bad things happening to good news organizations. "They had the best in the business on it, and they got duped and there but for the grace of God go you and I."
This is a monumental cop out.
"American journalism" did not perpetrate this fraud. Dan Rather and CBS News did.
The supposed "errors" made during this story would be analogous to a surgeon sharpening his scalpel on the soles of his shoes. Nobody who is supposedly a "professional is that incompetent by accident.
This fraud had little to do with "sloppiness" and everything to do with political partisanship and hubris.
This is from a Professor of Journalism? The guy's very profession has been discredited, and he still sticks to defending the political line of attack. Amazing.
"They got duped and there but for the grace of God go you and I"...and anyone who is bogged down in the quagmire of decadence known by the misnomer of "Liberalism". This is a delusional paradigm. The only way out is scrupulous, ruthless truth, and this is beyond those who are trapped in the paradigm.
CBS did not get duped! They just got caught!! They are trying to humanize it by suggesting that they were victims. Thats bullshit they were the instigators and here they are tying to get symathy.
John
Thanks for the recap. Haven't been able to listen to El Rushbo for awhile.
And these two fat and happy idiots slept through it. The revolution is over. We won. Get used to it.
New Media, be happy, be very, very happy!
"To hear some press experts tell it, CBS's admission on Monday that it was duped ..."
Duped??? I don't think so.
Reuters and AP, your days are numbered. We have far more people than you do, we have experts in all kinds of fields, in all parts of the world - and we're not pathological liars. Turn the lights out, makes no difference, you've been in the dark for quite some time.
Think it through: First, he's a professor. Second, he teaches journalists. That makes him the anti-Bush2.
We're glad they still don't understand how it works.
Reuters still buying into the Hegelian-Marxist Eurosocialist worldview, in which people working together can create nothing. Only the party elite can as the vanguard of the masses and only they, contradictorily, understasnd the inevitable "progressive" "science" of history. It is impossible for them to understand that they are simply wrong, wrong, and wrong.
CBS News was being sloppy not at being reporters, but at being political partisans.
Nope,it's just beginning. We have many more battles to fight,before any of this is over.
Well one thing is for sure, CBS are eating crow, big time. We should all send them funky pajamas in the mail!
Burkett offered Dan Rather the apple.
Rather suspected it was rotten but wanted to believe it didn't stink so he accepted it.
Rather then proceeded to not only bite into it, but then INSISTED others eat it, too.
Now that the apple has given him an upset stomach, he wants us to share his pain.
Yeah, right.
Rather needs some pepto to go with his worm.
BMP
It would be nice to think that this is the end of CBS News, or certainly of Dan Rather, but history hasn't shown this to be a certainty. Probably the best we can hope for is that CBS News becomes an economic liability to the network, and they just give it up. That outcome is certainly conceivable within the next 5-10 years.
LOL good analogy. But you forgot the part where FR and other "bloggers" screamed at him that it was rotten, even showing him the worm. Still he bit. Then, when his agita set in, belittled us for not being real medical doctors. Live and learn Dan.
Your comparison of the old media to Hegelian Marxists can be further expanded by bringing in another economist/political philospoher.
Friedrich Hayek disparaged socialists for their belief in the superiority of central planning. He believed that the free economy and prices act as a massive information system that best served the needs of a diverse set of market participants. Hayek would smile at how well his economic theories play well in the rise of the blogs and internet discussion boards.
This whole article does nothing but special plead for Dan Rather and attempt to excuse his acts. It also calls again to go after the "story" behind the fake memos.
Reuters.
Get a clue.
Yup. I'm not placing any bets that CBS News is dead. Nonetheless, they're angry and scared. And they know they can no longer count on the stupidity and laziness of their audience. Hopefully this can result in changes for the better.
I am so honored to be a Freeper and to be among all of you!
That latter story -- that said George W. Bush ducked military service in Vietnam by entering the Guard and then getting special treatment thanks to his powerful father -- has been lost in the welter of complaints about the CBS story. "
Boy, they just don't give up do they. Reuters: you're next. You have been serving up the lies about this just as badly as C___BS has. You, too, are part of the Old Media FRAUDcasters, as anyone who has any tendency wo dissect your headlines will attest.
But Tom Goldstein, former dean of Columbia University's School of Journalism, dismissed the notion that CBS's dilemma was a sign that American journalism has become more sloppy
You, Professor, need to take an UNbiased look at the situation sometime. I don't believe it is really possible, but perhaps if you do some time working with FR and MRC, you may be able to discover the Truth that you are wrong, and that C___BS and the FRAUDcasters of the Old Media have been mercilessly tilting newscasts for 25 years or so now, and always in an antiAmerican manner.
Orville Schell, dean of the school of journalism at the University of California in Berkeley, said CBS's admission of error after days of stonewalling was "a landmark moment for the balance between the blogosphere and mainstream media."
Bloggers were the first to challenge the authenticity of the documents and the first to publish detailed examinations of the evidence by dozens of self-declared experts, some of them with Republican party ties.
"The credibility of the media has taken another hit,...
Finally someone got it right. Too bad he didn't stop the sentence there.
/
Something in this piece made me think of you. :^)
Give me a break. Who got duped? As Neal Boortz pointed out in his article today, it was CBS viewers, not CBS. Boortz compared it to an entity passing on counterfeit currency that was drawn with a green crayon.
So Goldstein would stick the blame to a juvenile for a crayon counterfeit currency, and not the "responsible adult" for passing it along, eh?
These so-called Journalism experts reduce the art of detecting real docs from forgeries. In this instantaneous fake ID/fake driver's license era, who wouldn't carefully examine a document from all angles prior to legitimizing it. The fact that CBS was even apparently not even giving some of its own "experts" in-depth time or opportunity to examine it shows a rush to judgment.
Ideology and inherent deep media bias trumps even common sense.
Where's the BARF alert?
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