Free Republic

BURLINGTON - It began with an inaccurate local television news report, with the errors repeated by Vermont print and broadcast media. The story was quickly picked up by Internet bloggers and right-wing talk radio and soon reached at least three sensationalist national cable shows. Within a week, bloggers were posting ever more extreme comments, calling for vigilante action against a longtime Vermont judge and posting his home address and phone online. State politicians jumped at the chance to be on national television, repeating the errors and adding to them. Nationwide, there were calls for boycotts of Vermont if the judge...

After initially putting the first chapter of fired CBS producer Mary Mapes's book, Truth and Duty, on its web site, Amazon.com has apparently pulled the plug on the enterprise. Visitors to the online book retailer can no longer read the excerpt as it no longer shows up in listings for the print or audio versions of the book.Was the excerpt yanked because of the several objectively incorrect assertions it contained, and the subsequent blog firestorm their exposition caused? Only Amazon or Mapes's publisher, St. Martin’s Press knows for sure.

I was reading the text of the interview between Kalb and Rather and learned that the Rather story on Bush's aborted National Guard service was thwarted by "blogs" called "Free Republic" and "Buckhead." I did find a Buckhead.org, but it just seems to be a bland Atlanta area news source, so I don't know the story in that. So I came here. And guess what? Nothing. Your story page is nothing more than boilerplate site/conservative mission comments. I really don't know why this blog is meaningful at all. I would guess the main stream media has nothing to worry about.

Dan Rather, the CBS anchor who is well past his sell-by date, was verging on losing it in the early morning hours of November 3. Ed Bradley had carried out a mathematical calculation that showed that George W. Bush needed only to obtain 15 per cent of Ohio’s absentee and provisional ballots to win the state and the presidency. A visibly upset Rather then came out with one of his famous Danisms--just because a chicken has wings, doesn’t mean it can fly. In a poignant comment, Bradley defended himself by saying that he wasn’t making the math up--the figures came...