Throbbing Memo Anniversary: Blogosphere vs. the Mainstream Media
The ‘Throbbing Memo’:
Dan Rather, CBS News Not the Only Ones Put on Notice
Blogosphere Comes of Age
Now Watching the ‘Watchdogs’
The famous “throbbing” memo at Little Green Footballs
[NOTE: Our memo might not "throb"; for that you'll have to visit LGF.]
A battle fought between the blogosphere and the Mainstream Media four years ago helps Sarah Palin’s chances today in her battle with an MSM using the same tactics.
“I opened Apple’s TextEdit word processor, and with default settings typed in the same text from the August 18, 1973 memo as found at CBS News, with the same Times New Roman font at the same 12 point size.”
That sentence, posted on Fri, Sep 10, 2004 at 4:40:11 pm PST at Little Green Footballs by Charles Johnson, signaled the beginning of the end for American dependence on the gatekeepers of the Mainstream Media for their news.
As Johnson wrote today, “Four years ago, the Dreaded Throbbing Memo that haunts Dan Rather’s fevered dreams was born.”
According to Wikipedia–not the best source for current and/or political events; as any who sought unbiased, well-sourced info on either John Edwards’ scandal or Sarah Palin can attest:
The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate, Rathergate or Rathergate) involved six documents critical of President George W. Bush‘s service in the Air National Guard in 1972-1973. Four of these documents[2] were presented as authentic in a 60 Minutes Wednesday broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 Presidential Election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate the documents.[5] Subsequently, several typewriter and typography experts concluded the documents are forgeries, as have some media sources. No forensic document examiners or typography experts have authenticated the documents, and this may not be technically possible without original documents. The provider of the documents, Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, claims to have burned the originals after faxing copies to CBS.[9]
CBS News producer Mary Mapes obtained the copied documents from Burkett, a former officer in the Texas Army National Guard, in the course of pursuing a story about the George W. Bush military service controversy. The papers, purportedly made by Bush’s commander, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, included criticisms of Bush’s service in the Guard during the 1970s. In the 60 Minutes segment, anchor Dan Rather stated “we are told [the documents] were taken from Lieutenant Colonel Killian’s personal files” and incorrectly asserted that “the material” had been authenticated by experts retained by CBS.
The original throbbing memo can be seen at Another CBS Document Experiment
This episode led to CBS News first stonewalling, then later firing Dan Rather. Rather has never apologized and still insists that CBS’ running the story was correct–even though it was false.
Four years later, CBS is still stonewalling: look no further than the blackout of any news the John Edwards affair/scandal/cover-up prior to August 8th, when Edwards called Bob Schieffer and, in effect, told CBS and Schieffer it was okay to now mention the story.
In the Edwards’ story, CBS was joined by the entire posse of the Mainstream Media. Only the intrepid persistence of the National Enquirer and some blogs finally broke through the determined MSM “cone of silence”.
[Background information: access over 100 DBKP stories on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter affair, scandal and cover-up: John Edwards Love Child Scandal Library.]
Even after Edwards was confronted by the Enquirer’s reporters on July 21 and barricaded himself in a Beverly Hilton mens room, the watchdogs in the MSM didn’t think any of that was news–even though Edwards had just been named by Time magazine as being on Barack Obama’s short list for vice-president.
Now shift to another party, another VP: the same MSM that ignored the Edwards story is operating under a completely different standard.
The Mainstream Media is crawling all over Alaska in an effort to uncover something–anything–negative to write about Sarah Palin, John McCain’s VP choice. Not being able to find anything classified as “dirt” hasn’t stopped the almost-hourly binge of negative Palin stories in the MSM.
If the press had expended 1% of the effort in the Edwards story it has in trying to find something “bad” about Palin, the John Edwards’ story would have been dealt with in December and January.
All this brings us back to the “throbbing memo”–which by the way, is not a story you’ll likely see get big play in the Mainstream Media. That would be akin to the New York Times running a celebratory story about the Grey Shady’s declining circulation, stock prices and ad revenues.
Dan Rather and CBS News tried to influence the 2004 election by releasing a story based on forged documents–and got caught by the blogosphere.
Four years later, CBS and the MSM are still at in the business of trying to influence elections, this time by their 24/7 attacks on the conservative Republican VP.
This time around there is not only Charles Johnson’s Little Green Footballs watching them do it: there’s a cast of, literally, thousands to assist.
Happy Anniversary, Blogosphere vs. the Mainstream Media.
Happy Fourth Anniversary, “throbbing memo”!
by Mondoreb
image: Little Green Footballs
Wikipedia itself is very partisan news source that destroys its credibility.
My office tendds to fire people that footnote Wikipedia. I support that action.
Reply