September 19, 2004

Web Blogers Slam Brakes on CBS, Rather Duplicity

The latest CBS-TV left-wing tirade has Dan Rather gasping for air.

One might feel sorry for him if this was the first time CBS News was caught stirring the mud pot. Sadly for the profession of journalism, it is not.

One does not have to be gray of beard to recall Rather’s impertinence toward President Richard Nixon during a televised news conference. Rather’s colleagues booed him.

And who can forget Rather’s bias in the 1988 "CBS Special Report: The Wall Within." In this he asserted he was revealing the "true story" of the Vietnam War through the experiences of six veterans.

One of the men confessed to wantonly killing peasants and burning villages.

Another said he cried when a buddy was blown apart by a grenade. Another admitted to "skinning alive" 50 Vietnamese men, women and children.  

One complained of nightmares from being sprayed with the blood of a friend chopped to bits by a spinning propeller.

Anti-war organizations -- and the so-called mainline media -- hailed the CBS special as "powerful" and "extraordinary."

 Sadly for the cause of veracity, none of this was true. The frauds were uncovered by B.G. Burkett, a Vietnam veteran, who checked their records. CBS dismissed the findings as "irrelevant."  

Burkett published his findings in a book -- Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History. It never made the New York Times bestseller list.

Rather’s newest fairy tale is woven around four memos supposedly typed in 1972 by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, deceased, commanding officer of the Texas Air National Guard.

The documents – copies of alleged originals – indicate that President Bush ignored a "direct order" to get a physical examination and then dropped out of the guard to get a business degree at Harvard.

The memos were exposed on the Internet Web log (blog) before the CBS special had concluded. By morning, 500 blogers revealed that the memos were phony – and crudely so.

They were written on a modern computer in Microsoft’s Times New Roman style that is the factory-installed choice unless the user chooses another.  

Unlike manual typewriters with equal space for each letter, computers allocate space for individual letters according to widths – W versus I – for example.

In addition, computers "kern" adjacent bottom-heavy and top-heavy letters closer together – tucking a leg of A slightly under an adjacent T bar – for example.

A million blogers, really, on the web are having a hoot typing out the memos on their computers and superimposing the printout on the memos published on the CBS website. Stroke for stroke, dot for dot. Perfectly.

Rather sputters, "The memos may not be authentic, but they are accurate." This depends upon what the definition of is, is.

Now it is discovered by blogers that the memos were created and faxed to CBS by a notorious Bush critic in Texas.  

The journalism we old timers cherish, is fading away under the impact of abuse by television egomaniacs and modern technology.

Reporters used to write what they saw or heard personally. Editors were experienced filters for truth -- former reporters who could discern misinformation and demanded verification by two, dependable sources.

Many reporting enterprises have grown too big and arrogant. Unrestrained, they acquire egos and political agendas.

In the present CBS fiasco, we discover millions of blogers examining every public assertion. Collectively they include experts in every field of knowledge. Fakers run this gauntlet at great peril.  

The blogosphere is cursed (blessed?) with computer gurus. For $90 they register a website and pontificate to an audience larger than the big-time papers and networks combined.

In the beginning, the information overload had no filters. However, the first big-time bloger – Drudge Report – outted the Monica Lewinsky story and today enjoys confidence in its sources and judgment.

A half-dozen other blogers have gained reputations and voluntary donations for staffs of responsible editors.

Stubborn me. I avoid blogers because the static is too crude and trivial. However, blogs likely will grow up to be the antidote for mass-media bias.

The problem with CBS and Rather was that they wanted so badly to believe the accusations their judgment flew out the window – along with their reputations.

The fresh air coming back in is refreshing.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org