SwiftVets.com

[fortdixlover]

Schizophrenia at the Phila. Inquirer

This newspaper's editors just don't get it about backing up assertions with facts...they call for Rather's removal for his airing of false documents:

If CBS News is to salvage its credibility, Rather must go. Whether or not his producer did most of the prep work for this report, Rather put his weighty seal of approval on the story. Such carelessness by a veteran journalist, especially on a high-profile story about a sitting president in the heat of a campaign, has irreparably damaged Rather's credibility. His apology Monday night was overdue. Viewers are now left to wonder whether a veteran anchor was blinded by competitive juices or, worse and more unlikely, motivated by partisan bias. That kind of taint won't wash off, even in a hurricane.

Then they state: (!)

But don't let the smoke of this blunder utterly obscure the story beneath. There is little doubt that Bush received preferential treatment to get into the National Guard so he could avoid more dangerous service in Vietnam. After doing so, he went missing for many months during his six-year commitment. Apparently, at the time, he was a somewhat aimless twenty-something who was years away from settling down and becoming the man who would become president. All this, which was known in 2000, should hardly matter, were it not for the screaming hypocrisy of Bush supporters throwing mud on John F. Kerry's decorated service in Vietnam.

Finally, they note:

..... The blogosphere is citizen dialogue in action, which is great. If bloggers' watchdogging makes journalists more careful, that's also great. The real lesson for the mainstream media is a very old one: Get the facts right. Speed without accuracy is no good.

Yeh. Get the f'in facts straight. Speed without accuracy just ain't no good.

Ummm...dear Phila. Inquirer, I have a question: where, exactly, are your documents proving your assertions about President Bush? Ohhh --- you have no documents that you can prove are genuine --- I see.

And General Staudt has something to say about these issues, too, at http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=a52a42e53f6b2fed : "The subject started when [Bush’s] daddy ran for vice president, and it’s been going on ever since. I don’t have much to tell. It’s simple to me. There was no political influence."


-- FDL

-----------------------------------------

Phila. Inquirer Editorial | The CBS Hoax

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/9725429.htm

Memo to Dan: It's time to go.

The unforced error served up by CBS News about President Bush's service in the National Guard is not the end of mainstream journalism as we know it. But it ought to spell the end of Dan Rather's career.

As mistakes go, this one was colossal. CBS and Rather rushed pell-mell to broadcast apparently bogus memos, which purported to show Bush had disobeyed a direct order to take a physical exam in the National Guard in the 1970s.

We now know the network aired the story despite warnings from documents analysts that the memos might be phony. The source of the documents, retired National Guard official Bill Burkett, finally admitted this week that he lied to CBS about where he obtained the memos. CBS News officials still cannot satisfy themselves about the documents' origins.

If CBS News is to salvage its credibility, Rather must go. Whether or not his producer did most of the prep work for this report, Rather put his weighty seal of approval on the story. Such carelessness by a veteran journalist, especially on a high-profile story about a sitting president in the heat of a campaign, has irreparably damaged Rather's credibility. His apology Monday night was overdue.

Viewers are now left to wonder whether a veteran anchor was blinded by competitive juices or, worse and more unlikely, motivated by partisan bias. That kind of taint won't wash off, even in a hurricane.

*** But don't let the smoke of this blunder utterly obscure the story beneath. There is little doubt that Bush received preferential treatment to get into the National Guard so he could avoid more dangerous service in Vietnam. After doing so, he went missing for many months during his six-year commitment. Apparently, at the time, he was a somewhat aimless twenty-something who was years away from settling down and becoming the man who would become president. All this, which was known in 2000, should hardly matter, were it not for the screaming hypocrisy of Bush supporters throwing mud on John F. Kerry's decorated service in Vietnam. ***

Whether Bush's Guard duty matters much to you or not, the most pressing question has to be why so much energy and ink are being lavished on what these candidates did during a war that ended 30 years ago, rather than what they've done, and would do, about the urgent quagmire in Iraq.

The best thing might be a moratorium on the distracting phrases Swift boat and Texas National Guard for the rest of the campaign.

A footnote: Some analysts seem eager to declare this episode the death knell for the so-called major media. Not by a longshot.

Writers for Web logs - or blogs - began the questioning of the bogus documents. Bravo to the "blogosphere" for that. But other "old media" such as newspapers nailed the story down and drove it home.

The blogosphere is citizen dialogue in action, which is great. If bloggers' watchdogging makes journalists more careful, that's also great. The real lesson for the mainstream media is a very old one: Get the facts right. Speed without accuracy is no good.

[cipher]

[DaveL]

awesome letter cipher...wish there was a way to get that message out to the entire country!

[fortdixlover]

[Anker-Klanker]

Don't stop there. This charade includes the newspapers and multitude of magazines. They end up quoting each other so much the original source of any information gets totally lost (if it ever existed in the first place).

Today I happened to watch a CNN reporter interviewing other reporters traveling on the Kerry campaign bus (all of whom were Kerry supporters) as if that was news.

Some years ago someone wrote a book on a topic called "pseudo-news." It got some attention at the time, and some commentary, and then was forgotten. We're seeing an illustrated example of that phenomenon in spades right now.

[Bob Chamberlain]

I have been looking for something about this:

[quote="cipher"]