Everyone is talking or writing about Dan Rather and CBS's News' questionable judgement over the National Guard documents, even going so far as to attach "-gate" to "Rather" just in case people out there couldn't figure out this was a bit scandalous. One caption on a Dan Rather photograph from Reuters read:
Internet bloggers have drawn blood and American journalism may never be the same. To hear some press experts tell it, CBS's admission on September 20, 2004 that it was duped into using questionable documents about President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s National Guard service during the Vietnam War was a watershed moment brought on by a small army of Internet-based commentators known as bloggers.
Gothamist can't wait for the day that words like "watershed" can stopped being used for everything, because at this point, if you really think about it, there are enough watershed moments to summon Noah. Jeff Jarvis appeared on Deborah Norville's MSNBC show last night to talk about "Rathergate." Jarvis, as well as other information-interested (Jason Kottke, Steven Berlin Johnson) bloggers have been all over this story since cbs first announced it had the supposed letters
Gothamist loved this headline from Jay Rosen's Pressthink: Did the President of CBS News Have Anyone in Charge of Reading the Internet and Sending Alerts? From what we can tell, the Internet doesn't enter the mainstream media until at least six months out. Anyway, some wonder if there's a blog backlash in the making (from CBS Marketwatch, no less) and whether or not blogs get the facts straight. Other wonder if this will speed up Rather's retirement plans. The NY Times analyzes Dan Rather's apology, which makes us think of ESPN Page 2's What Was Dan Rather Thinking?, the Dan Rather watchdog site, Rather Biased, and Gawker's Dan Rather Death Watch.
And to bring it back to the granddaddy of modern political scandals, Gothamist recommends you see the 1999 film Dick, which is the perfect comic complement to Alan Pakula's All the President's Men. If you thought Robert Redford made a good Bob Woodward, you haven't seen Will Ferrell in action.
