Rathergate
Well, the Dick Thornburgh and Louis D. Boccardi investigative report on the fraudulent Rathergate memos (purporting to be documents from President Bush's National Guard Service) was finally released while I was on retreat. These memos, immediately declared to be forgeries by internet bloggers (including, but not limited to Powerline, Jim Geraghty, Instapundit, RatherBiased, LittleGreenFootballs INDCJournal, Wizbang, and Hugh Hewitt) were aired on CBS just one month before the national election as evidence of W's purported absences from duty responsibilities back in the 1970.s.
Several investigative and news-vetting staffers were fired but the credibility of Dan Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heywood were covered and "preserved." Heywood not only got a pass but was commended for his tough insistence that the report be accurate and validated. According to the report his words of caution and instruction were ignored and not carried out.
As chief administrator of the news department, doesn't that imply that he had, through lack of oversight, discipline or guidance, allowed a culture of incompetence and rampant anarchy to matasticise throughout the news staff? How can he get off the hook so easily? Whatever happened to "the buck stops here?" We don't even get an apology from him like we did from good old Dan. I suspect that either his "golden parachute" is too big for CBS to afford or that he has enough "dirt" on the rest of the CBS executives to sink the entire ship should he be placed in a position to write a book or to "get even." My guess is that he will be allowed to hang in there for a year and then retire early or be transferred to some other CBS job where he will not be able to cause any more embarrassment to the network.
Clearly the blogosphere had the big hand in bringing this entire matter to the fore. Tens of thousands of bloggers and informed internet readers knew of the scandal even before the CBS folks woke up the day after the story was broadcast. Even if the bloggers had not raised the red flag when they did it is likely that the forgeries would have been noticed soon enough, but perhaps without enough pressure or outrage to have forced the sort of backbreaking contortions and spin that actually ensued at CBS.
While I would encourage the blogospere to continue to pursue the "missing links" in the report (especially the professional connections between CBS staffers and the Democratic Party...bias? what bias?) I think the one-eyed monster has been beaten into a respectable level of humiliation in the eyes of the American public. Let's just let Dan "go gentle into that good night" but keep up the "rage, rage against the dying of the light" wherever the truth is twisted, fabricated or ignored.
Several investigative and news-vetting staffers were fired but the credibility of Dan Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heywood were covered and "preserved." Heywood not only got a pass but was commended for his tough insistence that the report be accurate and validated. According to the report his words of caution and instruction were ignored and not carried out.
As chief administrator of the news department, doesn't that imply that he had, through lack of oversight, discipline or guidance, allowed a culture of incompetence and rampant anarchy to matasticise throughout the news staff? How can he get off the hook so easily? Whatever happened to "the buck stops here?" We don't even get an apology from him like we did from good old Dan. I suspect that either his "golden parachute" is too big for CBS to afford or that he has enough "dirt" on the rest of the CBS executives to sink the entire ship should he be placed in a position to write a book or to "get even." My guess is that he will be allowed to hang in there for a year and then retire early or be transferred to some other CBS job where he will not be able to cause any more embarrassment to the network.
Clearly the blogosphere had the big hand in bringing this entire matter to the fore. Tens of thousands of bloggers and informed internet readers knew of the scandal even before the CBS folks woke up the day after the story was broadcast. Even if the bloggers had not raised the red flag when they did it is likely that the forgeries would have been noticed soon enough, but perhaps without enough pressure or outrage to have forced the sort of backbreaking contortions and spin that actually ensued at CBS.
While I would encourage the blogospere to continue to pursue the "missing links" in the report (especially the professional connections between CBS staffers and the Democratic Party...bias? what bias?) I think the one-eyed monster has been beaten into a respectable level of humiliation in the eyes of the American public. Let's just let Dan "go gentle into that good night" but keep up the "rage, rage against the dying of the light" wherever the truth is twisted, fabricated or ignored.
The "evil eye" winked at the truth once too often and got poked with a blog-stick. Perhaps a corrective lens would help the CBS news department see reality a little more clearly next time. I'll not be holding my breath.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 8:51 PM
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