Ernest Miller on RatherGate:
At what point do the members of a news organization have an ethical duty or responsibility to speak out against their own organization? Shouldn’t those who claim to be journalists and reporters hold themselves to a higher standard? Shouldn’t they demand the same of the organization to which they belong? Reporters rely on ethical individuals in other institutions to blow the whistle when there are critical lapses in those organizations. Where are the journalistic whistleblowers at CBS? What CBS reporter has the courage to say that their organization is engaged in an ongoing violation of basic journalistic ethics? What are we to say about those reporters who simply do nothing?
What are we to say? Well, at least in regard to those working at major network news outlets, howsabout par for the course, Ernest. After all, the Truth might set you free, but it won’t make the lease payments on your Lexus SC coupe…
Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
****
update: The plot thickens. Again. In fact, this plot is looking more and more like overcooked porridge by the minute…
update 2: Appearing on FOXNews’ “Day Side w/ Linda Vester” just now, Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Susan Estrich wondered aloud “how bloggers knew 59 minutes into the CBS broadcast that the documents were suspect.” She hinted that bloggers—presumably in cahoots with Karl Rove, the Templars, and ZOG—had launched an attack to discredit John Kerry and Dan Rather. And to disenfranchise Blacks, probably.
I emailed “Day Side” to let them know that Estrich had based her conspiracy tale on a retracted ABC story borne of their confusion over time zones, but by then the segment was over. I’ll be eager to see if they follow up.
Meantime, I’m going to email this around and see if we can’t get Ms. Estrich off her story…
update: via La Shawn Barber: “CBS Now Says Announcement Will Be Made at 5:00 p.m. Sources: Will admit docs are false but content is not.”
Well, if one of the “bloggers [who]knew 59 minutes into the CBS broadcast that the documents were suspect” had a little experience with military correspondence, I’d guess he/she used the bathroom (#2), made a sandwich, and ate it with chips and a soda before logging on and writing the comment. I knew about 60 seconds after I saw the copy of the memos that they were fake–wrong format and wrong signature block were a dead giveaway that the author was not a military officer.
Now we know where Ms. Estritch lives in the news cycle. Sheesh, with Democrat “advisors” like this, Karl Rove can kick back and have a margarita.
Re: Estrich and “bloggers knew!”:
“Free Republic” poster “Buckhead” was inaccurately cited as posting at 8:59pm Eastern time, rather <oops…> than at 8:59pm Mountain (or something) time. ABC’s The Note did correct that.
However, the Conspiracy lives! Buckhead credited other “Free Republic” folks as having posted their suspicions much earlier.
On the third hand, though, apparently CBS posted their pdf to the internet as the show began, at 8:00pm Eastern.
The Conspiracy seems to boil down to ungoodthink people watching their TV, carefully, and quickly analyzing the data provided by the TV show.
The above is written on the fly, check the updates to the linked Patterico post, an a subsequent Patterico interview with ‘Buckhead’, for verification.
Speaking of timing…Susan needs to keep up!
http://countrystore.blogspot.com/
(Could you imagine she is a cheese sandwich, please?)
It’s amazing how many people fail to comprehend that the pilot’s physical is a more thorough and unpleasant experience than a typical visit to the doctor. At the time in question large numbers of personnel were returning from Vietnam and there were only so many aircraft available with which pilots could keep up their required hours. The returning pilots had seniority and guys like Bush were effectively pushed out. If you can’t get flight time you can’t stay certified and if you’re faced with that why would you bother with the unpleasant physical that isn’t required for non-pilots?
I know I’m not the first to point this out, but didn’t Susan Estrich know somthing about this much earlier?
DirtyTrix
I believe that what this whole episode demonstrates is either: 1)If the memos come from the Kerry campaign or its Democratic supporters, it’s proof of their incompetence; 2)If the memos come from the Bush campaign or its Republican supporters, it’s proof of their genius.
Either way, it’s bad for Kerry.
-Anga
Just happened to see this segment while waiting for the CBS statement (aka, eye-boogers). Couldn’t believe Estrich said what she did. Thanks for beating me to the punch and emailing Fox on it.
Since Colonel Sanders has passed on(or went “tits up”, as they say), has Karl Rove taken his place in the Pentavret?
This is not the first time the Bush haters have been tripped up by the time zone. They made the same mistake in regard to Bush’s trip to Iraq.
If Estrich really believed it was Rove & the Republicans, the Democrats would be calling for Congressional hearings.
Damn Susan, that myth is like so 9/14 (a.m.of course)—pick up the pace or give it a rest.
In her defense she probably thought she was on CNN.
I, like you, Blew a gasket when Estrich PUSHED the DNC talking points-the VRWC knew in advance even tho’ this had been previously disproven!!! Realizing it was to late to contact Vesters’ show, I immediately sent the truth to the general Foxnews URL, but then i took that and wrote Brit Hume also and added the folowing “Having just watched Susan Esterich give the Talking Point LIE about the VRWC (vast right wing conspiracy) on Linda Vesters’ show, I wanted to weigh in on the subject. Susan said that this issue was raised by a VRWC’r before the 60 mins II show finished airing-FALSE-the commentor posted almost 3 hours later with a Pacific time stamp, not Eastern Daylite savings, on the Powerline Blog. Additionally the “Favorite Son” campaign and DNC talking heads state that GWB never served in the Air Force, and disobeyed a direct order to get an OUT OF CYCLE flight physical. I’ve seen quite a few of your Military experts, but am not familiar with an Air Force one??? Please contact one and review this Re these forged documents. Any Reserve or Guard personnel are ACTIVE DUTY AF for their initial training, which for GWB would’ve covered OCS and Flight School (12-18 mos.?). The AFP (Air Force Pamphlet) ‘Pen and Quill’ would’ve required a Letter, not a Memo, for giving a written order. The format would’ve been TO:, FROM:, and SUBJECT: in the heading, just as I typed them here. the subject would’ve been followed by ‘-Reply by Endorsement’, again just as typed here. this letter would name the AF member and the extent of said order, with a CC: (copy to) for file and any pertinent agencies. When the reply was received, it would be filed with the original letter-a memo order, and a memo of non-compliance would not be admissable as evidence-since there is no proof of said service members’ receipt of it. After that, your expert could then explain to you ALL the other discrepancies (format, ranks, signature element, etc.) that a Career Officer like Lt Col Killian would not have made even in a HIDDEN CYA file-and he would NEVER have titled said memo “CYA”. “ Brit Hume used these at the start of his show debunking the memos’ and THEN AGAIN to SHUT DOWN Juan Williams-who is an even worse TOOL than Estrich-and Brit SHUT HIM DOWN-Go Brit…..Retired AF and a Texan…