I just saw Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) on Hannity and Colmes. Bernstein is one of the icons of investigative journalism and his opinion was asked regarding the "Memogate" fiasco. Bernstein referred to the scandal as a "sideshow" and said that President Bush's Air National Guard service in the early 1970's is the real story here.
So it's a sideshow, is it? A major news organization, headed by a respected (by others in the media, if not by me personally) journalist, does a story that could have a profound impact on a presidential election (in the middle of a war, no less!), and uses forged documents to prove their case. How in the hell is this a sideshow? CBS and Dan Rather engaged in (either willfully or negligently) a fraud perpetrated on the American people. Bernstein's attitude, which mirrors CBS' attitude, is that no explanation is owed to the American people. We all have a duty to pretend it never happened and to tune in to 60 Minutes next week and willingly ingest whatever they decide to spoon-feed to us.
I'm sorry Mr. Bernstein, but I'm not buying it, and neither are a lot of other Americans. "Buying it" sums the situation up quite well. actually. You people (the news media) are a business. Your credibility is essential in order to stay in business. Without it, no one will buy what you're selling. To make an analogy, think of yourselves as cookies vendors. Last week, Dan Rather and Company sold their customers a bag labeled "chocolate chip cookies". As it turns out, the actual contents of the bag consisted of 100% pure bovine manure (bullshit, for those of you with Ivy League educations). It's pure arrogance to deny your customers an explanation, and even more arrogant to expect them to buy another bag next week.
I have a feeling that Dan and his crew are going to keep on hawking more bags of (C)BS like nothing happened. I don't know about you, but I'm not buying.
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