I’d call myself 80% convinced that the CBS National Guard memos are fakes. I’m trying to be as skeptical as possible, and I do allow for the possibility that the memos are legitimate. Still, the evidence against them seems pretty strong, and CBS’s assertion that we should just take their word based on their credentials doesn’t sell me. Did you see Rather’s angry rebuke of the internet and bloggers on Friday’s broadcast? Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed that he was having a hard time containing himself. The guy looked livid. This is bound to provide enough material for a wonderful chapter in Bernard Goldberg’s next book. He’s already spoken out about it:

"This is what happens when a news organization operates in a bubble — a comfy liberal elite bubble," former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg told Ratherbiased.com, a Web site devoted solely to monitoring Mr. Rather. "They wanted the story to be true, so they apparently minimized or ignored any information that contradicted their preconceived notions."

I visit ratherbiased.com from time to time, and have linked to it from this blog since day one. They’ve been all over this story:

n Who were CBS’s Sources? Over at the liberal grassroots site IndyMedia, Pablo Kristophoros says that the disputed memos cited by CBS are in author Kitty Kelley's upcoming book The Family : The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. How great would it be if the source for the CBS story was somehow irrefutably revealed to be Kitty Kelley? I’d get a huge kick out of watching Rather dance around that one.

n CBS has made up stories out of whole cloth before. In 1998, 60 Minutes had to issue the following apology, courtesy of Lesley Stahl: "Last April, during a story about how easy it was for trucks carrying drugs to get through Customs at the Mexican border near San Diego, we showed a memo written by Customs District Director Rudy Camacho, which urged quick processing of trucks belonging to what had been described as a known drug smuggler. But since our report, the Customs Service has concluded that memo was a forgery. In a letter to California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the commissioner says the Customs Internal Affairs Department thoroughly investigated the memo and concluded it was a hoax, and that neither District Director Camacho nor anyone else ever put out such a memo."

All of this makes me proud to be a member of the blogosphere and another cog in the big right-wing wheel. If we’re able to keep these guys on their toes… if we’re able to get them to concentrate more on reporting news and less on creating it… then we’ve really accomplished something and the world is a little better for it.

Dance, Dan, dance! Bernie is watching!

Permalink -- Posted by Darrell at 17:05