Rather Pathetic

Frankly, I'm getting tired of all the hubbub surrounding "memogate", CBS News' brazen attempt to manipulate the Presidential campaign by passing off fake documents as being authentic. The intellectual gymnastics going on over there are starting to make me a little dizzy and before I let this thing slip away from my fleeting attention span I've decided to fire one last salvo...

But First, a little re-cap, they deny the documents are phony, then they say they might be phony but it doesn't matter because the story is still true. Now they drag out some 86 year old lady who says some contradictory things,

He often called me the name of his father’s secretary, and he was always apologizing because he couldn’t remember my name. He was always very gentlemanly. I felt that his parents must have been wonderful to have produced someone like that.” [Source]

That doesn't seem too damning. But with a little coaching from Dan Rather,

Rather: Step back here for a moment and tell me, what do you think the real story is here?
Knox: "I think it's simple. Bush didn't think he had to follow the rules everyone else did."

I guess that seems a little damaging, but think about it this way. If CBS had simply come out with this story saying "86 Year old woman says Bush didn't think he had to follow the rules" that would hardly be newsworthy. So if the documents are fake, the story is nothing more than one person's impression of someone's attitude 30 something years ago. Incredible. And the media thought the Swift Boat vets were hard to believe? End of re-cap.

Like I said earlier though, my attention span for this thing is almost gone. I'll wager most people feel the same way. CBS is prepared to wait us out. They're hoping this will all blow over and they can go back to peddling their leftward view of the universe under the guise of "news".

I've read some bloggers who want to boycott CBS. I don't think that will do much good, but contacting the sponsors and letting them know what you think about this whole thing is worthwhile. I also think it would be good to let your local CBS affiliate know your. Here's the text of my letter to WIFR in Rockford,

Dear WIFR:
I'm extremely unhappy about your network's recent attempts to manipulate the Presidential Election by presenting fake documents as fact. Until something is done to address the situation at CBS News, I won't be watching your station - not the local news, not anything. The current state of denial at CBS News is unbelievable for a supposedly professional news organization.

I hope you pass along my comments to CBS and let them know how it's affecting Channel 23's business.

If you happen to live in my area (Blue?, Guy?) and you'd like to let WIFR know how you feel, you can email them at: talkto23@wifr.com

While you're at it, send along your opinion to any of the other CBS affiliates by going here, List of General Managers of CBS Affiliates
Finally, if you haven't already sent some email to sponsors of CBS News you can go here for that information.

That's it. I will blog no more on this subject. I promise. If you need a memogate fix I would suggest you visit RatherGate or Rather Biased.

Posted by jdmays at September 15, 2004 07:55 PM | TrackBack