Tech Central Station - Blogs v. 60 Minutes (and my thoughts about the incident becoming known as "Rathergate")

Check out the following article:TCS: Tech Central Station - Blogs v. 60 Minutes by Jay Currie.

Currie points out that the forged documents CBS used to discredit President Bush were themselves discredited by a host of unknowns in the blogosphere! Just a bunch of average Joe's, like you and me, who knew a thing or two about word processors and fonts.

For those who don't know, the blogosphere is where you are at this moment, if you're reading this online at www.theodicy.blogspot.com. Theodicy is a blog, a nick-name for "weg log." The vast numbers of blogs on the internet are known collectively as 'the blogosphere.'

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FORGED MEMOS
Since stumbling across the story about the forged memos, (while reading some of my favorite blogs!) I've been thinking about the ramifications of this story. It is truly a historical moment for many, many reasons; but most importantly it clearly demonstrates how the mainstream media will no longer be able to pull a fast one on the American people. Of course the Internet has been FULL of articles and postings from average, non-journalist citizens contradicting stories in the professional newsmedia for many years; but it is amazing how CBS's memo story was being debunked on the Internet BEFORE IT EVEN AIRED THIS PAST WEDNESDAY NIGHT! This is a major victory for the blogosphere (people like me & you) and a horrible defeat for the professional mainstream media.

This also shows just how desperate the Democrats have become. It is no secret that 85 to 90% of all American journalists are Democrats, and for those who cover a political beat, the number approaches 100%. Of course they want their guy, John Kerry, to win the election, which makes it rather difficult for them to cover the news objectively, to put it mildly!

So CBS, thinking they could help their candidate--who is falling behind in the polls--goes with a majorly bogus story to discredit President Bush, thinking no one would notice that the documents used as the foundation of their story would be analyzed to the n^th degree, well before the story was broadcast on TV.

For many people, this only demonstrates what they already knew: the major American news networks (with the notable exception of Fox News) are working for the Kerry campaign as unpaid volunteers--and not very adept volunteers at that. If there's any story that can possibly damage President Bush in the eyes of the American voters, it gets a major television special. If there's any story that could possibly hurt their candidate, (like 250+ of Kerry's former boatmates stating that he lied about his service in Vietnam) the story gets burried, unless they decide to do a hit piece against those who are discrediting their candidate.

The amazing thing is that no matter what his supporters in the news media try do to help him, John Kerry ends up being his own worst enemy. It is common knowledge that most people who are supporting Kerry are really just wanting to get rid of Bush. In other words, they don't like Kerry so much as they hate Bush for starting the war in Iraq. So Kerry has become the focus of the anti-war vote.

Yet a majority of Americans--even if it's a slim majority--support the war effort, and are grateful that the events of 9-11 have not been replicated on American soil. And they correctly credit President Bush for going on the offensive against terrorism, rather than waiting for the Sears Tower to be blown up. The recent events in Jakarta and Beslan only underscore the wisdom of offensive, decisive action.