In what he probably views as a brave piece in today’s Newsday, Mediachannel.org editor Danny Schechter uses his powers of divination to explain how a tiny little non-event like the CBS forged document story got blown up into a huge media scandal via some carefully orchestrated plot by a cabal of right-wing hitmen, the goal of which was to destroy uberpatriot (and unimpeachable source) Dan Rather.
Writes Schechter:
“CBS’s most popular program “CSI” can now investigate a crime scene close to home.
The reputation of veteran news anchor Dan Rather is lying on the floor, bloodied by a mistake he has now admitted, flanked on the political right by “we told you so” finger-pointers led by GOP operatives demanding his head.
That’s right, Danny. Always open with a joke, even a lame one. A joke loosens up your audience. Wins over their trust. Shows ‘em you’re a regular guy—not just some embittered lefty crank whose dreams are plagued by visions of Karl Rove in a bowling shirt, reading the Bible and urinating all over the Constitution.
Got one for you. Q: Why did Danny Schechter cross the road? A: Who the fuck is Danny Schechter?
And as for Mr. Rather admitting his mistake, well, not quite. He’s sorry he got caught, sure. But that’s about it. He used a dubious source, ignored the advice of his own experts, dismissed testimony that disproved his story’s thrust, then—when questioned—launched the same kind of simple-minded, defensive, accusatory attack on his detractors as you offer here, Mr Schechter.
A news outlet once headed by “the most trusted man in America” is accused of being the least trustworthy. With Rather apologizing for airing a story based in part on memos that CBS cannot verify, it looks bad for network news in general and critics of President George W. Bush in particular. And that fits the M.O. of the people behind the hit.
Well, in the sense that “the people behind the hit” like their news forgery-free, I suppose you’re describing the “M.O.” correctly…
The story that “60 Minutes” ran charging that Bush had not completed his Texas National Guard duty has now been pronounced a “mistake.” CBS News added that “a source had misled the network on the documents’ origins.” The network promised “an independent review of how the report was prepared to help determine what actions need to be taken.”
Over at Fox News, they were breaking out the champagne when the admission of error came down from Black Rock. Fox, of course, has its own (wink, wink) “standards” and never makes mistakes worth acknowledging. Their playbook in this regard feeds and follows a well-established White House approach: When confronted by unwelcome truths, avoid them, deny them or tarnish the critic.
Ah, the Oliver Willis defense: CBS uses forged documents and an unreliable source to rush to air—with no supporting evidence, mind you, and against the advice of document experts—a speculative story about the Commander in Chief’s military service…and FOX NEWS is evil! Bush lied! Beware conservatives who control the means of production and would sell their souls for super-lucrative petroleum contracts!
Well played, Mr Schechter. Wink wink.
Fox News branded this dust-up a scandal, a “Rathergate,” using a familiar “change-the-subject” tactic to deflect attention away from persuasive charges that President Bush has not told the truth about his military “service.” Allegations about a media misdemeanor were quickly blown up into a felony demanding Rather’s career termination with prejudice.
See how clever FOX News is? They managed to change the subject of forged documents into a story about…forged documents! Or, in keeping with Mr Schechter’s curious use of scare quotes: forged “documents.” But Mr Schechter—a man whose keen mind can pierce through veils of smokey misdirection to seize upon the bright light of Truth—sees right through this gambit and recognizes that the real story is the allegations themselves, allegations supported by the word of a discredited source using faked documents. Oh. And the testimony of an 86-year old former member of the TxANG secretarial pool.
The right-wing attack machine works by personalizing issues and demonizing “enemies” with overheated language and cartoon-like characterizations. Osama “the evil doer” bin Laden gave way to Saddam “the butcher of Baghdad” Hussein, and now John “the phony war hero” Kerry has been displaced with a “lather over Rather.”
…Whereas “right-wing attack machine”? A very un-cartoon-like descriptive phrase awash in cool neutrality…
It’s a textbook example of how attacks against journalists are used to denigrate news not to the right wing’s liking by planting items in the media food chain and cranking up an echo chamber of feigned indignation.
”Feigned indignation.” Because really, how can anybody but an army of right-wing nutjobs be upset with an unsubstantiated attack on the President that relies for its force on forgeries—or that in its genesis employed the kind of “investigative journalism” that would make the editor of a high school newspaper cringe.
The Republican National Committee operates its own 24/7 anti-news network to monitor coverage and orchestrate a rapid response. Salon reports that the story casting doubt on the documents was first pushed into the news stream by Creative Response Concepts, a Republican public relations firm.
…Which, of course, was debunked by bloggers, resulting in a retraction and an apology. But I suppose Mr Schechter is so busy organizing “facts” to fit his narrative that he hasn’t time to do a Google search…
Then, selected bloggers…
—”selected”? Selected by whom? Cheney? Rove? Nixon’s Ghost? Oliver Stone?—
…went to work led by an Atlanta lawyer who helped get President Bill Clinton disbarred and was the first who called the memos fakes.
Well, “Buckhead” ain’t a blogger, first off. And second, how does helping to get an attorney who perjured himself disbarred affect one’s ability to recognize a Word document presented as a 1972 typewritten memo?
His charges spread like a prairie fire through the rabid conservative grapevine and amen corner. The goal: Focus the media on Rather, not Bush. CBS initially stood by the documents, then hedged, saying that even if they were flawed, the story that Bush had disobeyed his commander’s order to have a physical was accurate in essence. But it finally had to concede it was a mistake to run the story.
”Rabid conservative grapevine and amen corner”? Are you serious with that line? Dubious poetic choices aside though, lemme ask you a question: isn’t the proper focus of an investigation into forged documents the forged documents themselves, followed by a closer look at the peddlers of those forged documents? And if the documents are forged, why on earth would anyone focus on the man being defamed by the forgeries?
It’s possible that CBS was flim-flammed, but TV’s need for visuals did them in. By trying to gussy up the story with what producers call “video enhancement elements,” “60 Minutes” fell on its own sword, opening itself up to attack. Other leading news outlets including the BBC ran the same story about Bush’s troubles in the Guard without being discredited.
Translation: sure, CBS was duped, but only because they really really really wanted to hammer home George Bush’s guilt. In retrospect, maybe—just maybe—they should have stuck to the available facts. But c’mon: they were going for it, y’know? And can we really fault them for that?
Dan Rather has been a punching bag of the right ever since he was targeted for being rude to President Richard Nixon 30 years ago. Conservative journalists accused him of fudging footage from Afghanistan in the 1980s when he took over the anchor chair as the high salaried “Six Million Dollar Man.” Some conservatives tried to buy CBS with the promise they would fire Dan Rather the day the “Tiffany Network” became theirs. His critics pictured him as the poster boy of their hated “liberal media.”
The irony is that he doesn’t fit the stereotype. Rather has a superpatriotic persona. A day after 9/11 he went on the David Letterman show to proclaim his willingness to do whatever his president ordered. On Sept. 22, 2001, he said he would give the administration the benefit of every doubt. When a pre-war interview with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad raised eyebrows, he tacked hard right in his war reporting, for which he later won the conservative Media Research Center’s top prize for best network coverage.
And of course, anyone who a day after 9/11 goes “on the David Letterman show to proclaim his willingness to do whatever his president ordered” is then allowed to do as he pleases, unchecked, from now until Aunt Lulu makes the breadpudding. He used forged documents to push a flimsy story? So what? After 9/11 he went on Letterman and expressed outrage at the nineteen Islamofascists who flew planes into buildings and slaughtered 3000 Americans. See? He cares. How dare you question his reporting. That’s like, well, questioning his patriotism…!
Don’t write Rather off. He has had more media lives than the Republican Guard that wants to bury him. He is just this week’s poster boy for the sins and screw-ups of an imagined liberal media.
…Whereas two days from now, Danny Schechter will again be that same nobody who recently crossed the road…
***
h/t Michele, who has ASV. See also, INDC. And Allah.
Mr. Goldstein, if that is your real name, comrade(!), that was awesome, although a bit like watching Rosie O’Donnell tackling a rib roast.
So then, Jeff, you think he makes some good points, huh?
Nice job, Jeff. This is exactly why I visit.
Oh, this is a hoot…”Fox News branded this dust-up a scandal, a “Rathergate,†using a familiar “change-the-subject†tactic to deflect attention away from persuasive charges that President Bush has not told the truth about his military “service.†Not persuasive EVIDENCE, mind you, but persuasive charges. So those are the rules, huh?
Fine…I CHARGE that John Kerry sodomized asian boys while in Vietnam. Didn’t he win a Silver Star for shooting a teenager in/on the back? ANSWER THE CHARGES MISTER KERRY!
Wow, rabid grapevines. I wonder what the wine would taste like? Grape Kool-Aid, with just a hint of tinfoil, probably.
Multiple choice. Pick one:
a. BLOG Dan Rather!
b. Dan Rather can go BLOG himself.
c. Dan Rather is a dumb motherBLOGGER!
d. Who the BLOG does Dan Rather think he is?
e. Who gives a BLOG about Dan Rather anyway?
f. Dan Rather really BLOGGED up this time.
g. All of the above.
Righteous fisking, Jeff.
Makes me wonder how long it took Danny boy to write this masterpiece with one hand obviously in his pants. All those leftist tropes are so arousing. My guess is he climaxed with “Republican Guard.”
What the…did I just read this guy making fun of Bush calling OBL an “evil doer”…like, he’s not? Ditto for Saddam not the Butcher of Bagdhad? I guess 250,000 people in mass graves makes Saddam the “Mister Rogers” of Bagdhad? How about Osama “Mother Teresa” Bin Laden (he builds schools, right?)
And these guys wonder why they lose elections?
Hey this may be of interest. I’ve posted this around on several sites re this thread.
*****
These guys in the MSM are no longer relevant in the 21st Century. Actually I now prefer, Legacy American Media Establishment (L.A.M.E. Hat tip to CERDIP at the Command-Post). The bloggers are the trusted “network portals/nodes” where information/news coalesces from the vast organic neuro network of the Blogosphere.
What is important is the significant stories the L.A.M.E has failed to cover for one reason or another. Thse are the stories the American people need to hear in order to make informed choices in this presidential election.
See my comment at Windsofchange.net.
[…]
I wrote similar piece on our site re the emergence of a new medium of exchange of information – The Blogosphere. Information is free to transcend political boundaries and constraints and biases of media editorial and corporate boardrooms.
It’s a growing organism. It’s a self-righting collective consciousness of human thought. While there are extremes if one takes the average or “bell curve” the result is generally an objective view in perspective and proportion.
[…]
Also check out these other stories that have gone below the radar of the L.A.M.E for one reason or another. These are the stories the American people need to hear so that they can make informed choices in this presidential election and not warmed over hash from thirty-five years ago.
[…]
Ron Wright, Moderator
HSPIG Forums Site
http://www.hspig.org
DISCLAIMER – This is not the opinion/position of my employer and/or organizations I’m affiliated.
I didn’t think that I’d ever write anything like this, but I think that the comparison with Oliver Willis is unfair to Oliver. Oliver is much saner than Danny Schecter. Please don’t construe that as damning with faint praise.
Awesome. Just simply steller. I love the smell of arrogant scumbags in the morning.
Seriously, way to pick it apart piece by bs piece.
Nicely done, Jeff.
I will make sure that your blog is considered for selection in our forthcoming coordinated attack on Newsday. BTW, the RNC has secretly made a $10,000 to your tip jar. Don’t tell anybody.
Nicely done, Jeff.
I will make sure that your blog is considered for selection in our forthcoming coordinated attack on Newsday. BTW, the RNC has secretly made a $10,000 to your tip jar. Don’t tell anybody.
Nicely done, Jeff.
I will make sure that your blog is considered for selection in our forthcoming coordinated attack on Newsday. BTW, the RNC has secretly made a $10,000 to your tip jar. Don’t tell anybody.
What do you expect from someone who counts Danny Glover and John Pilger among his advisors?
Nice ream-job on the gradeschool reporter from 8th Avenue.
I was pummeling him at his own site when alerted to your dissection, which I happily forwarded. They’ll need dental records to identify Boy Danny’s charred remains.
It’s typical of Newsday, a criminal enterprise that forges its own circulation records, to print such journalistic tripe.
Geez, hadn’t seen the “amen corner” referred to in years. Nice snide little reference to “Republican Guard” there too. In the world of these little symps, I guess we’re all just like Saddam’s henchmen.
But what I need to know? Where was the Halliburton reference???
Bloggy blogs and the bloggers who blog them.
Nixon’s Ghost would be a good name for a band.
Danny the Dunce responds:
[removed for technical reasons – ed]
Thanks for the correction, and the rectification
must feel good to be so self-righteous
i never worked for PBS
will check Letterman date
and the haliburton connection, now that you mention it……
Danny the Dunce
>Boy, are you the blogosphere laughingstock of the day.
>
>Haven’t laughed at a Danny this much since, well, this morning.
>
>What I want to know is, how did you not work Halliburton into the
>story?
>
>Obvious correction that should be forthcoming: David Letterman WAS NOT
>on the air Sept. 12, 2001, you dunce. Were you still in Boston at that time
>working for PBS, taxpayer funded media?
—
Danny Schechter, News Dissector
Editor, Mediachannel.org
GLOBALVISION
575 8th Avenue
New York, New York l0018
212 246-0202×3006
FOR WMD INFO, see
http://www.wmdthefilm.com
VISIT “DISSECTORVILLE”
Danny Schechter’s work and times
http://www.newsdissector.org/dissectorville
Consider applying the reasoning of Mr. Schecter to that Middle Eastern bestseller, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. By Mr. Schecter’s logic, we should not focus on the charges that this work is a forgery, charges that were undoubtly spread by the well-oiled Jewish Attack Machine, but rather we should focus on the alarming substance of the work. Just like the Republican Attack Machine, the Jewish Attack Machine has shifted the discussion from the existence of a plot for world domination to silly questions about the Protocols being an almost exact copy of a 19th Century French political satire. I wonder if Mr. Schecter really wants to go down that route; I know that I do not.
Um… can I be the “Amen Corner”?
The wierd thing is that these folks actually continue to show such contempt for (a) the truth, (b) critics of any ilk, and (c) the American people…
The idea that a National Guard unit, in the days when the Marines were still trying to get M-16s to replace their M-14s, would have a super top of the line typewriter in and of itself is ludicrous…
The President may or may not have arrived on time for every formation; but he received an Honorable Discharge. And the ability to do something 30+ years ago is not nearly as important as the ability to protect the country for the next four years…
Danny the Dissector weighs in again, after noting he was wrong about the date Rather slithered onto the Letterman program. This guy is hopeless. He checks his own “work” then still comes back with the wrong date.
[edited for technical reasons]
how right you were
it was the 17th
date was wrong, information right
in the same way that the documents could be fraudulent,
the larger point right
d
—
Danny Schechter, News Dissector
Editor, Mediachannel.org
GLOBALVISION
575 8th Avenue
New York, New York l0018
212 246-0202×3006
FOR WMD INFO, see
http://www.wmdthefilm.com
VISIT “DISSECTORVILLE”
Danny Schechter’s work and times
http://www.newsdissector.org/dissectorville
I especially like Mr. Schecter’s tone. By avoiding any semblance of mature, logical reporting he can copy and paste the complete article at DU—just sprinkle in some CAPITAL letters and change the author to “b0iT0i” and voila.
so, what does a right-wing hit man make these days, anyway? ‘cause I could use some extra money.
so Danny Sphincter’s trying to play Iago to the swing-voting Othello by waving a loony-toons embroidered handkerchief. it always works on the weak-minded, just as long as they don’t look too closely into Iago’s eyes, or check his facts. like someone commenting on Bill’s post, who noted the discrepancy over the Sept. 12 Letterman show-that-wasn’t.
Q: Why did Danny Schechter cross the road?
I don’t know, but he sure as hell shouldn’t have crossed you.
Sorry, won’t leave email info in there again.
See how easy it can be to apologize sans smugness?
That Schecter guy, he’s one weird-looking dude, sort of like a junior grade Ron Kuby.
Methinks Newsday is getting that sickening CBS feeling today.
Re: Michelle ASV’s contention that you are Karl Rove.
I’ve never seen the two of you in the same room together. Why aren’t you denying this charge?
The funny thing about Schechter’s rant about a right-wing conspiracy is that the most complete and compelling analysis of the typography, proving that the documents were created in MS Word, was done by Joseph Newcomer, a computer typography pioneer who describes himself as “not a fan of George Bush”. http://homepage.mac.com/cfj/newcomer/index.htm
Though many of the blogs that drove this story forward were pro-Bush, a number of the technical experts who were consulted or offered their opinion and determined that the memos were forgeries openly stated that they were not Bush supporters.
Though there is undoubtedly partisan hay to be made out of the hubris of a pillar of the liberal media establishment, the core of this story is that someone tried to pull a fast one and got caught. If Schechter was really a journalist or even an honest partisan, he’d admit this instead of looking for boogeymen.
Fear he who wields the Fisk-of-Doom.
Excellent fisking! I say amen from the corner!
BTW, who is Danny Schechter?
I thought that the Oliver Willis defense was to cry racism?
Buried in Schechter’s hopelessly lame clutching of Dan Rather to his bosom (excuse the painful imagery) is his depiction of this whole scandal as a “media misdemeanorâ€Â. Sweet Jesus.
Forgery (and other assorted deceptions)…
Concealment of the few facts CBS accidentally stumbled across (sadly these contradicted the “TRUTH†and so got buried)…
Collusion (bordering on conspiracy) with the Kerry campaign…
And stonewalling of Homeric proportions, coupled with multiple character assassinations…
What on Earth would constitute a felony in Schechter’s book?
Jeff.
This was like the old you. I was afraid this ability to write brilliant analyses was lost and the wierd incomprehensible (at least to me) blurbs you’ve been posting was proof that you had moved-on to another plane where only selected readers in on the joke resided.
Thanks. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.
Boy, that Schecter fella really knows how to impress in the comments, eh?! That all lower case thing always makes me think “stand back, we’re dealing with a genius here!”
Excellent fisking Jeff!
Your awesome surgery only left one little piece of the tumor – the “plant”
Why is he more worried about who “planted” the “discovery” of the “fake documents” than he is about who “planted” and “harvested”) the “fake documents”?
Did I correctly emulate the “felonious use of quotation marks”?
(I wish I could remember where I read the ‘felonious’ barb, so I could attribute it.)
(No, that’s not true, I really wish I’d thought it up myself.)
Justrand asks:
I think the answer to this question is obvious: supporting a Republican.
“What on Earth would constitute a felony in Schechter’s book?”
Dan Rather could garotte George Bush with his suspenders and much of the left would call it self-defense.
That was no mere fisking. That was the new and improved schechterizingâ„¢.
Way to show ‘em how it’s done, Jeff.
One of the best fiskings I’ve ever read. Thanks, Jeff!
As a side note, I’ll say that I’ve seen the origin of the word “fisk” (after Robert Fisk) and I potentially disagree. As an old Unix hack, the command used to check and clean up a disk is fsck which is pronounced the same. It’s a verbose program that checks the contents of a disk and reports back everything it spots in error. Way back in 1983 we adapted the term ‘fisking’ to describe any type of critical detailed analysis.
But maybe just a case of parallel evolution.
I laughed, I cried, I nearly soiled my pajamas!
Damn, Jeff. I felt the love with this one!
Not to get all petty or anything, but this Schecter guy seems to be excessively fond of photos of himself, with and without celebrities. Especially unflattering photos.
Hilarious and spot on fisk, Jeff!
As usual, delightful job. However, what makes it pure Goldstein is that it followed:
John Edwards talks in his sleep
Edwards: “Bunnies, yes. Yes. Bunnies. Bunnies. Bunnies.â€Â
I like both the weird stuff (conversations with your pants) and the righteous bloodletting stuff such as in this entry. It all creates a harmonious conglomeration of words which can only be described as “Protein Wisdom.”
Danny was a speaker last December at the “World Electronic Media Forum” “a high level gathering of media leaders from across the world, planned as a kickoff event to the UN World Summit On Information Society. . . sponsored by the UN, the Swiss Government as host to the Summit, and by the European Broadcasting Union.”
Meh. A glorified circle jerk with fancy snack food.
Well, nothing bothers me more than a circle jerk where the host simply lays out some poorly-made Chex mix and some watered-down orange drink.
Um, is this what they call “a fisking”? Can’t really tell, not “hip” to “the lingo”. Hmm….
Notice the “scare” “quotes”… BOO!
Damn. Crapped my PJs…
Interesting, isn’t it, that of all papers where Mister Schechter could have published his deep thoughts about MSM being caught with their pants down…
…it would be in a paper that’s been embroiled in their own scandal concerning inflated circulation figures (see http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/212511p-183023c.html)?
Great takedown Jeff. But I think you missed one glaring opportunity for comment:
“Their playbook in this regard feeds and follows a well-established White House approach: When confronted by unwelcome truths, avoid them, deny them or tarnish the critic.”
I guess old CBS took a page out of the White House “playbook” because anyone, even Danny, who can deny that CBS did exactly that should be forced to undergo a competency hearing and have their affairs taken over by a rational adult.