The Command Post - Op-Ed - Flame-Proof Pajamas -or- Why MemoGate Matters

September 13, 2004

Flame-Proof Pajamas -or- Why MemoGate Matters

In the end, it will matter not if bloggers were actually wearing their pajamas when they began their education-by-fire of kerns and fonts and the ancient world of typewriters. The fact will remain that they beat some men and women wearing shirts and ties to the punch. No...they did more than beat them to the punch; the shirted reporters barely knew that the fight had begun.

If Jonathan Klein truly believed his notion that "[b]loggers have no checks and balances . . . [it's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas," when he made that statement, his belief system must be taking quite a hit at the moment. Besides the fact that not all bloggers are guys, I'd have to say that a major portion of us have real jobs that keep us from shuffling around our living room in our feetie jammies all day.

As for checks and balances, we have each other. As Rev. Donald Sensing said:

Bloggers are fact checked incessantly by other bloggers and most blogs have a comment feature where a lot of fact checking goes on. And it's done in realtime, unlike any MSM. Reporters for MSM generally have one editor. I have, today alone, 17,000-plus, every one of which is empowered to tell me I screwed something up. In realtime. On my site. Try that with 60 Minutes.

Touche, Mr. Klein.

While the memos in question in this MemoGate® or RatherGate® or The Tale of the Tricky Typography (or whatever you would like to call it) have not yet been proven beyond doubt to be forged, the real story here is no longer about Bush's AWOL service or superscript lettering. It is about the integrity and the accountability of the media, in particular that of CBS and, to a lesser extent, The Boston Globe.

It's no secret that Dan Rather has an agenda. The website Rather Biased has been chronicling, well, Rather's Bias, since 2000. The fact that Mr. Rather is seen by millions of people across this nation on a major broadcast network means that his agenda has a wide audience. Now take into account that most people in this country still are naive enough to trust mainstream media (MSM) to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and you end up with one person yielding a lot of influence just two months before a presidential election.

When word first started traveling that the memos Rather used on his 60 Minute piece on the Bush AWOL story might be forgeries, CBS should have immediately issued a statement addressing the topic, saying that while they stand by their sources they would also be looking into the matter in order to clear up any confusion about the documents. That way, they would let the public know that they were aware of the issue and they were taking this slight on their reputation seriously, while at the same time letting the same public know that they still believe their original source.

But, no. CBS instead went into defense mode, with Rather spewing out bitter nonsense about the internet rumor mill and partisan hacks:

�Today on the Internet and elsewhere, some people, including many who are partisan political operatives, concentrated, not on the key questions of the overall story, but on the documents that were part of the support of the overall story.�

As I said before: the problem is, the key questions of the overall story are moot if the evidence is false.

Things shifted quickly after that. Bloggers dug deeper and some news outlets noticed. Others picked up on the story and, neglecting to mention how the key components of MemoGate began, did their own research and called their own specialists. The Boston Globe, in fact, called upon the same forensic document expert as Bill at INDC. And then they went on to misrepresent his words to the point that the expert, Dr. Bouffard, was livid. Not to mention the fact that the Globe, which continues to perpetuate false statements, got Dr. Bouffard's name wrong in their article.

CBS then went on to use the Globe story - now known by many to be disingenuous - to prop up their belief that the memos are real. One hand washes the other, one presumes.

It may seem odd that just 50 days before the election the media is honing in on arguments about typeface but, if you look under the surface, it's not really the kerning that is the greater issue.

Perhaps the reason the LA Times and the New York Times, two papers that could be considered liberal, have printed articles or opinion pieces that seem to favor the blogger side of the story is because, if they don't take that stance, they run the risk of being lumped together with Rather and CBS, like the Boston Globe. At this moment in time, that's not a good place to be.

In fact, CBS and Rather are not even going to talk about the memos anymore:

Dan Rather was quoted in the New Zealand Herald as saying that there was no use debating the authenticity of his documents which he claims are proof that George W. Bush committed any number of unethical acts while in the National Guard.
"Until someone shows me definitive proof that they are not [authentic], I don't see any reason to carry on a conversation with the professional rumour mill."

What CBS and Rather should have done in this instance was to face the charges head on, rather than trying deflect the issue. This is no longer about AWOL charges and they have to recognize that. This is not some "silly" issue as some professional pundits put it. Anyone connected with MSM who makes a statement like that is clearly in denial that the integrity of MSM as a whole is at stake here. Or, perhaps, they aren't in denial, but fully aware, and their only defense is to go on the offense.

What's at stake here is not the election. I honestly don't think the election will be decided over Bush's National Guard discrepancies or Kerry's Holiday in Cambodia. The American people know there is too much at stake to base their vote on thirty year old matters. So why does a news outlet like CBS deem such an issue (in CBS's case, just the Bush issue) so important as to devote their time and effort to airing it, yet not devote the time and effort towards backing up their evidence? Is someone - or several someones - letting their agenda show? It's one thing for a news outlet to slant one way or the other in its daily reporting. It's another when they use their power and influence to sway a presidential race, which I believe Rather has been doing. He has abused the trust that so many Americans have for him. Regardless of whether the memos prove to be true or false, when all the smoke has been cleared, when all the typography experts and kerning specialists go back to their desks, when all the bloggers put on their pajamas and sit back with a beer in their living rooms, one glaring fact will remain: the media cannot be trusted. Specifically, Dan Rather cannot be trusted.

How can you trust a media outlet that aired a negative piece like they did without presenting the other side of the story, which they clearly had? They interviewed people close to the situation who regarded the memos as fakes, yet they did not bother to include those interviews in the 60 Minute segment. Even when faced with more evidence that the authenticity of the memos should be doubted, CBS continued to give the cold shoulder to truth.

Had Rather stood up and feigned shock that the memos might be false, and then hired another expert or at least addressed the possibility that he and CBS might have been duped, we would not be sitting here talking about typesetting. But Rather has been outed, so to speak, as a braying, defensive, partisan hack who has no more integrity than Jayson Blair. Perhaps he should be shaking his fist at his source - or himself - instead of bloggers.

Posted By Michele Catalano at September 13, 2004 10:56 AM | TrackBack

Comments

It amazes me how much Rather's response to questions in this issue resemble the Nixon response to Watergate.
Impugn the credibility of the questioners.
Seletively react with only affirmative data from outside, and ignore negative data.
Say "enough is enough" and "refuse" to comment further.

Except that the desire to protect one's derriere will be overwhelming. How long do you think Rather and CBS will maintain this newfound "cone of silence" on the issue?

I'm guessing 4:00pm EST today, September 13, 2004.

Posted by: j.pickens at September 13, 2004 12:05 PM

Who's going to host CBS Evening News???

Posted by: Cap'n DOC at September 13, 2004 03:52 PM

Excellent Commentary Michelle

Yet again -

BLESSED BE FOR THE INTERNET/BLOGOSPHERE!!!!

Here's some excepts on the MSM down for the count [excepts below]:

While the following might not be directly related to the War On Terror, it does show the mainstream media (MSM) may not be objectively reporting on the presidential election. This is very important as this election has great significance. The American People need objective reporting so that they can make an informed choice in the presidential election.

If you haven't noticed yet the Blogosphere is in high gear re the CBS 60 Minutes II documents concerning President Bush's service or lack of in the Texas Air National Guard (TANG). The general consensus is that they are forgeries. The Blogosphere is now onto finding who the creator was. Some seem to center on the RNC et al (Rove), the obvious of course is the Kerry campaign, and others suggest it's someone or several people with knowledge of the TANG (See link to Wizbang).

The best comment I've seen and I can't remember whose site I saw it on, is the originator was the military as a pay back for Abu Grade[OK I can't spell]. Sixty Minutes was the one who broke this story. The rationale is a military person created these docs in a manner they would normally pass muster and passed them along to someone that was a "trusted source" for the MSM (AKA the disgruntled from TANG member where these stories of emanated before). The "trusted source" was so hot to get this into the MSM's hands they failed to see the obvious flaws. The MSM ran with the story but the originator knew full well the Blogosphere would shred it and expose the MSM for the partisans they appear to be. Go figure. There have been more than enough examples of the MSM rooting for the enemy when this Country is at war (My comment/opinion). Again Blessed Be for the Internet/Blogosphere.

Now whether this matters or not re the issue of President Bush being AWOL could be moot when put in proper perspective of the times (Vietnam War). See this link to an article that appeared in the conservative FrontPage.com:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15039
[...]

We can win this war folks! All we need to do is harness all this creative talent and put it to use in the War On Terror.

The mainstream media has become irrelevant as the provider of the objective news of the day. The Net and the Blogosphere has passed mainstream media by as the new medium which conveys the news of the day in the 21st Century.* Poor Walter Cronkite, "And that's the way it is this September 11, 2004."

Ron Wright, Moderator
HSPIG Forums Site
www.hspig.org

* See link:

http://www.hspig.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1131

[...]

My personal post/comments to CBS 60 II and the Boston Globe re allahpundit.com ('s) suggestion that bloggers send their comments in:

POOR WALTER CRONKITE, "And that's the way it is Sept. 11, 2004."

CBS News and the Boston Globe,

You got STUFFED!!

If you want to run something relevant in the 21st Century try doing something on the Mad Mullahs of Iran going nuclear soon and also think it's ok to hang a sixteen year-old girl.

Put the TANG issue to bed you got stuffed. People are not interested in hearing about it anymore. The issue is who will lead the country on the War On Islamofascism and wipe this failed Ideology of hate and murder from the face of the earth.

See my post over on Roger L. Simon's blog site. BTW the Internet and the Blogosphere have made the MSM irrelevant.

http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2004/09/dept_of_dont_ge.php#c14394

Ron Wright
Riverside, CA

Posted by: Ron Wrght at September 13, 2004 03:54 PM

It�s hard for me to believe that anyone could look at the signatures on those memos and not notice the obvious differences. I believe Dan Rather saw the differences and chose to ignore it. He knew the MSM would not question him, and his award winning producers is, of course, beyond reach with her Abu Ghraib exposure. Rather didn�t give the blogosphere a second thought, much less even a first consideration.

And I don�t this it�s a coincidence that the Democrats have launched new attacks on Bush�s National Guard Service today. I think Rather was to lay the ground work.. the �softening up� if you will for the kill.

Posted by: TexasGal at September 13, 2004 09:03 PM

It's amazing to watch the MSM march on, fatally knicked, and continue down their pre-scripted ANG smear as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the last week.

But everything is different now. Not only does CBS have a half-million bloggers screaming "BS!!", some of their own fellow-travelers (the ones who don't have to cough up their sources in the DNC) have printed their doubts and hedged their bets in ink.

Why? because most journalists with a brain know CBS is past the end-game here, the point where they would normally admit their mistakes, offer the heads of a few minor staffers and move on.

That hasn't happened because CBS would rather implode than admit the source of their bogus silver bullets. Guys who add this whole caper up HAVE TO KNOW, they're closing their eyes and slowly shaking their heads "How could someone sucker on such obvious forgeries?"

I'll repeat this for those of you who missed the first time. Dan and the rest of his neo-leftist buddies believed the memos for the same reason millions believe Michael Moore's fiction flicks. BECAUSE THEY WANT TO. It doesn't really matter to Dan that he's swallowed very bad fakes, what's important is the message of Presidential ineptitude and deception he really wanted to get out in the first place. Memos are fakes? No matter, the important thing I was saying folks, these memos show you what a 1st class weasel Georgey was in the '70s.

He's not earning anyone's admiration here, but he never had any to earn, did he? Dismissively sniff that your enemies are politically motivated, pj-wearing amateurs, not high-paid professional hacks like me.

Dan will lay low for a few days, pretend everything's been settled, but it won't be. He and CBS were mortally wounded by a disastrous judgement that's plain to anyone objective enough to realize this mistake trades on the very things every news outlet covets - believability.

I, for one, enjoy watching Rather squirm. He's a pompous, officious pretender whose objectivity left him before he left Dallas. And now he's been caught in one king-hell lie from which he can't bully or threaten his way out.

Let him twist in the wind a little longer. His day is over.

Posted by: torpedo_eight at September 13, 2004 11:02 PM

I earlier stated:

"Except that the desire to protect one�s derriere will be overwhelming. How long do you think Rather and CBS will maintain this newfound �cone of silence� on the issue?

I�m guessing 4:00pm EST today, September 13, 2004."

Well, I was off, but not by much.
Here is the time stamp on the CBS news article:
September 13, 2004 21:19:06

Hey, I thought Danny Boy said:
"Until someone shows me definitive proof that they are not [authentic], I don�t see any reason to carry on a conversation with the professional rumour mill.�

Here's the link to the CBS "non-conversation":
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/06/politics/main641481.shtml

Posted by: j.pickens at September 14, 2004 12:39 AM

In the end, it will matter not if bloggers were actually wearing their pajamas
********************************************************************8
ThanksI don;t own any pajamas. Was not certain
sweatpants qualified. ;-)

Posted by: Dan Kauffman at September 14, 2004 08:15 AM

The biggest surprise to me with this whole thing was that anyone's still watching Dan Rather.

Remember how a couple of years ago he said someone came up to him, hit him, said some cryptic James Bondish phrase, and ran away? I wonder if this isn't just the same kind of attention getting behavior...

Posted by: Mona B. at September 14, 2004 08:54 AM

Ancient world of typewriters???

Gol-durn-it. Where are my dentures? My dander is up and as soon as I can hobble for my cane.......

;-)

Oh, small quibble:

While the memos in question in this MemoGate® or RatherGate® or The Tale of the Tricky Typography (or whatever you would like to call it) have not yet been proven beyond doubt to be forged,

The case has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the docs are fake. At this point, it is solely up to CBS to prove their authenticity.

Posted by: Darleen at September 14, 2004 03:24 PM