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Saturday, September 11, 2004

I'm Having a Gas

I gotta say, I am having an absolute gas watching Dan Blather, er, Rather squirm like a frog in a hot frying pan. I mean, after looking at this animated gif file, how could any reasonable observer actually believe that these "documents" aren't utter forgeries? CBS and Blather are just ruining their credibility by "stickin' to their story". Someone at CBS will eventually stand up and say enough. It's just an egregious, very, very serious example of gross bias. These "documents" got lead story billing on 60 Minutes within a few days after a cursory glance as some pathetic forgeries. The Swift Boat vets have sworn affidavits and personal testimony and they were literally ignored by CBS for a month. And this isn't just trying to take down a corporate executive or something -- this is a naked attempt to influence a presidential election!

Rather is, I think, caught in a time warp. He doesn't have a clue about the power of the Blogsphere. He probably figured he could put these documents out there and that it would take months -- (read "until after the election") -- for anyone to even begin to question these documents. He thinks to himself "It would take me weeks or months to verify these." He probably figured they'd be shown on TV for a few seconds, and since the "documents" got locked in his desk, then all would be well. No one would see them, so no one could fact-check them.

Sorry, Dan, it doesn't work that way anymore. The pictures end up on the web, and inside of 24 hours, the thousands of people in the blogsphere see them, and it only takes one or two people to say "Uh, that doesn't look right", and then next thing you know, bloggers are getting emails from former Air Force Admin folks, typography experts, handwriting experts, and heaven knows who else, and the whole package is vetted and fact checked in about a day and a half. In that time, it becomes utterly, completely, painfully obvious that these "documents" are forgeries. But Rather, who can't conceive of such a thing happening so fast, can't understand or comprehend the power of the Internet.

Some lefties are arguing the conspiracy theory that Karl Rove "planted" these documents. Well, lets even assume that's true. That doesn't change the fact that Rather bought this clear fraud hook line and sinker. Even if Rove blatantly planted these amateurish forgeries, (a completely ridiculous notion on the face of it) Rather is still a complete buffoon.

Man, this is about as good as it gets.

posted by Nick at 18:45 | [Permalink] (0) comments

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