Everything about this episode smells fishy.
Where the documents came from is still a mystery. Who else is involved and how far up the food chain is still a mystery because CBS refuses to deal with the fact that these documents are a hoax. Dan Rather, who reported the segment and rushed it into production, refuses to admit that the documents were a hoax, instead claiming that the authenticity is questionable. He still holds out hope that the real original documents will come forward to vindicate his position.
The only way that the original documents will come forward is if the original computer file is located on the computer of some enterprising, and less than successful, forger who has a cross to bear with the current sitting President.
That CBS continues to stand by this story is amazing considering that raison d'etre for the segment was the airing of these documents. These documents are all forgeries. Anyone who has bothered to examine them for any length of time has come to that conclusion.
Most Americans continue to rely on network news for their info about the world around us. For a network to run a story with such import, that if true raises serious questions about the fitness and character of the sitting President (albeit about events occurring more than 30 years ago) on such flimsy and contemptable information and sources, one has to wonder what else the network has done with news over the years.
No one, from the Left or Right, should stand for this kind of behavior. We need the media to be impartial and objective. Yet, the 60 Minutes segment, and indeed Dan Rather's coverage of politics and world events, are anything but impartial and objective considering that they are staking their reputations to a story and evidence that is false.
UPDATE 9/24/2004:
Some of the people reading may not quite know what I'm referring to when I mention pajamahadeen. Well, one particularly crude critic of the bloggers who uncovered the forged memos and CBS's participation in foisting this fraud on the public, Jonathan Klein, stated ""Bloggers have no checks and balances. [It's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas." Now, Klein was a former 60 Minutes executive and made those comments on Fox News. Well, the bloggers who broke the story loved the idea of sitting in their jammies so much, that they coined the term pajamahadeen pretty quickly. Other similar terms include pajamarine and pajama blogger. Of these, I think pajamahadeen will outlast the others.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to lawhawk's Middle East Politics topic, please visit the Discussions page.