Friday, September 10, 2004

 
The Day the Old Media Died

9-10-2004. Remember this date.

Today is the day that New Media, talk shows and blogs, have surpassed more traditional forms of media. (Before I go on, let me say this post isn't really about politics, but about the media.)

CBS ran a story about Bush's National Guard Service, raising questions about his service. Some of the evidence they relied on were documents from Bush's superior officer (who died in 1984).

In a remarkable string of events, blogs began to raise serious doubts that these documents were forged. So much so, many Democrats now think they were planted by Karl Rove.

To the credit of other traditional organizations, they have noted that these alleged forged documents contradict earlier released documents.

Even more amazingly, Sean Hannity had two interviews. The first was the alleged document writer's son, who thinks the documents are forged. He mentioned that his father was fond of George W. Bush and that people closest to his father were mentioned to CBS and never interviewed.

Now, the main portion of the CBS piece centered around former Lt. Gov. Barnes. He said he got Bush into the National Guard. Here's the shocking interview. His daughter was interviewed and basicly said her dad was lying. She heard the rumors before and asked her dad about them in 2000. Barnes told her that he didn't do it.

CBS is currently standing by the authenticity of the documents, and their comments are being picked apart as we speak. Best summation of CBS's defense: "In other words, Bush sucked and Killian didn't, so Killian must have written that Bush sucked."

What's the main point here? Bush could have gotten into the National Guard with help and I and others would have cared less. But the point of this matter is that a difused group of people are able to get to inconsistencies in a story which CBS could not. Traditional media is following instead of leading.

I experienced this in a small way with my work on Avodat Yisrael. A portion of the story (Andrew Sparks' unorthodox views on salvation) saw the light of day because I could type something in and hit 'upload.'

This is a wonderful thing for everyone.

Here is a list of CBS' Problems.

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