Rathergate; Edward Gibbon; Rome/ U.S. parallels

Today is the fifth anniversary of Rathergate. Click here for the four year anniversary post.

I celebrate this year with a quote from Edward Gibbon:

"Every channel of communication was stopped or corrupted."











The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Vol II, p. 226.

Rathergate - four years later

Four years after the blogosphere exposed the forgeries that CBS used in its story about George W. Bush and the Texas Air National Guard, the MSM/DNC is no less relentless in its lies about Republicans.

The MSM/DNC has spread so many smears about Sarah Palin in little more than a week, it is almost impossible to keep track.

But we have countered every attack and will counter even more. Because Rathergate was about much more than Dan Rather, George Bush or John Kerry. Rathergate had less to do with typesetting, kinkos, superscript "th", or a "failure to authenticate" than it had to do with the future of information.

• Rathergate was about the ability of the old media to control the discussion (no matter what the issue).


• Rathergate was about the old media monopoly.


• Rathergate was about alternative sources of information.


• Rathergate was about the truth vs. the power of the old media.


• Rathergate was about a long term revolution.

Within months of Rathergate, Dan Rather was out of a job, and so was the President of CNN over an entirely different scandal exposed by conservative blogs.

During and after Rathergate, CBS News was discredited, and so was Newsweek over a different scandal in which bloggers presented the truth to the public.

Numerous other major news outlets would be discredited over lies in 2005 (and later).

The point is, Rathergate provided a boost that helped the blogosphere counter MSM/DNC lies from that point forward. Rathergate is a major milepost in the new media revolution. Rathergate is as important as Drudge's exposure of Monicagate.

We make a mistake if we think of Rathergate as merely a pleasant memory that serves no purpose today. Rathergate is a battle that must be refought every time that the MSM/DNC tells a lie.

The left continuously celebrates (and misinterprets) the anniversaries of its greatest victories - Watergate and Vietnam. We will hear about those events nonstop until the MSM/DNC disappears. We must celebrate our victories also, or the left will reinterpret history and remove Rathergate and other milestones from our collective memory.

As we fight the anti-Palin smears, Rathergate must be our weapon. Just as the left opposes our efforts in the war by linking all such efforts to Vietnam, we must remind the world that the MSM/DNC has no credibility because of Rathergate. We must serve notice that we will not allow the equivalent of forged documents to smear our candidates. We will not stand by as anonymous Rather-wannabes spread lies.

Only by building on the victories of the past will we enable those victories to mean something in the future.

previous -

Three year anniversary - personal recollections.

Two year anniversary - Rathergate legacy

One year anniversary - "shot heard 'round the world."

---------------------------------

Update - Rathergate in light of September's events.

Rathergate three year anniversary

Today is the three year anniversary of Rathergate.

Click here for last year's anniversary post and here for the one year anniversary in 2005.

This post contains numerous links to posts from Powerline and Little Green Footballs that explain the history of the scandal and how it unfolded.

Without recounting the history of the scandal, remember only that CBS broadcast the report based on the forged memos on September 8, 2004. Free Republic picked up the forgery almost immediately:

After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

Within a few months, Rather would retire, the blogosphere would force out Eason Jordan from CNN, Newsweek would be exposed as having published lies about Korans in the toilet at Gitmo and the MSM/DNC would continue its long, slow tailspin. The final chapter on the whole MSM/DNC media monopoly has yet to be concluded. But the opening paragraph of that final chapter was written on September 8, 2004.

2005 anniversary post

My own observations from the first days of the scandal provide an example of how the world really changed at that time. I first began reading about the possibility that the memos were forged on Thursday, September 9, 2004 (the day after the broadcast). That evening (while driving to a dinner appointment), I heard Sean Hannity on the radio. In discussing the broadcast, he appeared agitated and angry. He did not raise the issue of the memos being forged. He seemed unaware of the discussion from Powerline and LGF (as linked by Drudge). He seemed to be handicapped by his lack of knowledge of the blog discussions.

When I arrived at my dinner, my leftist dinner companions seemed overjoyed by the previous night's CBS report. When I pointed out that the memos were forgeries, they merely laughed. They had not heard this accusation in the few hours since the story first aired. The idea of a "60 Minutes" document being forged was beyond their experience.



Within two days, the situation had changed completely. On Saturday, September 11, 2004, I attended a large outdoor picnic at which one of my dinner companions (from Thursday) was also present. By this time, the accusations of forgery had forced themselves into the mainstream. The dinner companion from two days earlier approached me and apologized for having snickered at my accusation. When I asked what had changed her attitude, she reported having seen the forgery story on some mainstream news program. I had read the initial reports regarding the forgery, but I was unaware that those reports had gotten to the point where mainstream viewers would see them. But apparently the two days between the 9th and the 11th had made a tremendous difference. Judging from my friend's change in awareness, it appears to me that those two days were the crucial days in the scandal. When average leftists become aware of a MSM/DNC outlet's perfidy, the result becomes almost inevitable.

One never knows when a few posts on one's blog can impact the opinions of those who pay little attention to blogs or media bias issues.

Rathergate two year anniversary

Very few commentators have noted that today is the two year anniversary of the Rathergate scandal. As I noted last year on the one year anniversary:

For those who don't remember the sequence of events, the exposure of the CBS' perfidy began within hours after the broadcast. At 8:59:43 PM Pacific Time on September 8th, Buckhead posted the following at Free Republic (see post #47):

The world has not been the same since:

That post was the 21st century's "shot heard 'round the world." After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

In a series of separate posts last year, I noted the influence of Rathergate on various media and political issues.

As I noted at the time:

Rathergate was more than a 12 day scandal that forced Dan Rather off of the air.

Rathergate was about more than George Bush or John Kerry or media bias or MSM/DNC monopoly or one Presidential campaign. Rathergate was all of those things and much more.

Rathergate is about every milestone that every blogger celebrates, every story that the blogosphere breaks, every fact that the MSM/DNC can no longer surpress and every failure that afflicts the MSM/DNC until the end of its days. The legacy of Rathergate will survive long after Dan Rather is gone.

The Rathergate legacy

The celebration of the Rathergate anniversary has been building for weeks. Rathergate has affected many aspects of the media and how we gather and share information. I found it impossible to summarize the impact in one (or even many) posts. So I took three months:

On June 11, 2005 (89 days out), I described the 90 day Rathergate countdown and its significance:

I consider the anniversary to be such a momentous event that it merits a long runup - especially since it will be ignored by the MSM/DNC. Rathergate was the watershed event that brought not only the blogosphere, but the entire new media into the public spotlight. The new media had been growing since 1988, when Rush Limbaugh put conservative talk radio on the map. Matt Drudge's Lewinsky story made the internet an integral part of the new media revolution in 1998. But these events were only cracks in the dam. With Rathergate, the dam burst and a river of new information and opposing viewpoints poured forth. Ever since, we have been awash in information, the likes of which had previously been confined to the MSM/DNC's memory hole.

Rathergate (and the long term significance of Rathergate) deserve numerous posts. Over the next three months I hope to focus on Rathergate and the new media in an effort to foster greater appreciation of how far we have come and where we are going next. I hope also to generate sufficient buzz to insure that this event will not be ignored or lost in a sea of the MSM/DNC's usual white noise.

At 88 days, I predicted the downfall of weekly MSM/DNC periodicals.

At 87 days, we celebrated Michelle Malkin's one year blogiversary.

At 82 days, I included a quote from Joe Sobran from March 4, 1997, in which he predicted the general trend that we now celebrate:

We're now moving into an era of media fragmentation, for which we should be deeply grateful. It means the end of the liberal opinion cartel.

At 81 days, we celebrated Black Five's two year blogiversary.

At 79 days, we observed a new "fake, but accurate" story.

At 78 days, I observed (several days late) blogfather's day.

At 75 days, I observed that the MSM/DNC Gitmo spin was falling on deaf ears.

At 67 days, I observed that the MSM/DNC was fighting back against the blogosphere to greater extent and in different ways than it did during Rathergate.

At 66 days (July 4th), I celebrated Rush Limbaugh's broadcast anniversary.

At 61 days, I discussed the blogosphere's role in the coming Supreme Court battle.

At 60 days, I included a quote from a Hugh Hewitt reader:

Because of blogs I know that I am not the only person who has a problem with the bias in the MSM.

At 59 days, I observed milestones for Belmont Club and IMAO.

At 54 days, I observed Blonde Sagacity's one year blogiversary.

At 53 days, I included a quotation from Hugh Hewitt's book, "Blog":

"Newspapers and TV talking heads are falling behind their audiences because they refuse to read the map that is in front of their noses. They want to regain their monopoly on commentary, and seem to believe that by ignoring the repeated tidal waves that hit them, they can will themselves back to relevance."

At 52 days, I related Thomas Sowell's first hand experience with MSM/DNC lies during the pre-Rathergate era - when he had little choice but to live with the slander.

At 51 days, I included a May 11, 1998 quote from Thomas Sowell that showed that he "got it" at a time when few others did.

At 50 days, I observed the death of General Westmoreland and compared CBS' slander of Westmoreland with the ability of today's blogosphere to fight back. [I am glad that General Westmoreland lived long enough to see Rathergate.]

At 47 days, I observed one more indication of the blogosphere's growing power, as bloggers forced the termination of a terrorist sympather from the staff of the Guardian.

With 45 days to go, I noted a blogging scandal at the Miami New Times and noted that MSM/DNC ethics don't improve merely because the MSM/DNC is using the blogosphere.

With 42 days to go, I celebrated Newsweek's declining advertising numbers.

At T minus 39 days, I noted a New York Times article that chronicled the damage suffered by MSM/DNC, but still missed the point.

At 37 days, I noted David Sifry's "state of the blogosphere" post.

At 36 days, I noted Scrappleface's use of a Dan Rather joke as a launching point into an Air America parody.

At 35 days, I noted a 1754 Blog milestone.

With 33 days to go, I noted the end of Arthur Chrenkoff's blog.

At 32 days, I noted a seemingly pointless attack on blogs in the Des Moines Register.

At 28 days, I celebrated instant justice for an anti-Michelle Malkin spammer.

With 27 days to go, I learned of the "Stalin radio" and its similarity to the MSM/DNC.

At 26 days, I wrote of an example from Thomas Sowell's book demonstrating how the new media would have accelerated his research in the 1990's.

At 25 days, I noted the role of the Swift Boat Vets in forcing CBS into the Rathergate blunder.

At 24 days, I observed David Brancaccio's counterattack against the blogosphere.

At 23 days, I noted positive trends in new media/old media readership.

With 22 days to go, I announced a milestone on my own blog and discussed Rathergate's impact on the creation of The Cassandra Page.

At 21 days - more bad news for the MSM/DNC.

At 20 days, I found a video that described the roots of the internet revolution.

With 18 days left, I quoted Thomas Sowell and Robert Bork on the difference the new media makes in the Supreme Court battle.

At 12 days, I quoted Ann Coulter and Judge Posner on the issue of what effect the alternative media has had on the MSM/DNC.

At 10 days, I provided a chronology of the new media revolution.

At 9 days, I discussed the role of the 2004 GOP convention in the events that led to Rathergate.

At 5 days, I noted the anniversary of the final domino in the Rathergate countdown.

Yesterday, I noted the calm before the storm.

Today, I marked the anniversary by referencing Hugh Hewitt's analysis and the Buckhead post that was our generation's "shot heard 'round the world."

Most of the above referenced posts describe some event that reveals the power of the blogosphere and the new media. Most of those posts show how Rathergate impacts our lives and our ability to obtain information.

Rathergate was more than a 12 day scandal that forced Dan Rather off of the air.

Rathergate was about more than George Bush or John Kerry or media bias or MSM/DNC monopoly or one Presidential campaign. Rathergate was all of those things and much more.

Rathergate is about every milestone that every blogger celebrates, every story that the blogosphere breaks, every fact that the MSM/DNC can no longer surpress and every failure that afflicts the MSM/DNC until the end of its days. The legacy of Rathergate will survive long after Dan Rather is gone.

Rathergate - The revolution accelerates

One year ago this evening, CBS' 60 minutes aired the now infamous segment that relied on the forged Texas Air National Guard documents. The world hasn't been the same since.

One year ago tonight

I do not intend to rehash the story of the fake documents. Rathergate is now much larger than a story of fake documents. Rathergate was the storm that focused not only the blogosphere but the entire new media into a battle with the old media. The new media won.

Other such battles had been fought before. But in this episode, the old media was forced to recognize the blogosphere and its contribution. The old media (or MSM/DNC as I call it) has waged a continuous war over the past year to marginalize the blogosphere and regain its old monopoly. I cannot do a better job than Hugh Hewitt of summarizing Rathergate and its impact. Check out pages 37-42 of Hewitt's book "Blog."

For those who don't remember the sequence of events, the exposure of the CBS' perfidy began within hours after the broadcast. At 8:59:43 PM Pacific Time on September 8th, Buckhead posted the following at Free Republic (see post #47):

To: Howlin
Howlin, every single one of these memos to file is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman.

In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts.

The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software, and personal computers. They were not widespread until the mid to late 90's. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn't used for personal memos to file. Even the Wang systems that were dominant in the mid 80's used monospaced fonts.

I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old.

This should be pursued aggressively.

That post was the 21st century's "shot heard 'round the world." After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

Within a few months, Rather would retire, the blogosphere would force out Eason Jordan from CNN, Newsweek would be exposed as having published lies about Korans in the toilet at Gitmo and the MSM/DNC would continue its long, slow tailspin. The final chapter on the whole MSM/DNC media monopoly has yet to be concluded. But the opening paragraph of that final chapter was written on September 8, 2004.

Rathergate anniversary - 1 day and counting

Click here for previous Rathergate countdown editions.

One year ago today, MSM/DNC sat poised to attack George W. Bush. It had been trying to pin something on him for years. Despite its many attempts, Bush had survived. All MSM/DNC attempts to destroy and blame Bush had failed. The mood was much like that of today, as the MSM/DNC continually flails away at Bush over the hurricane.

We don't know where the Hurricane blame game will lead, but last year's MSM/DNC attacks, as of September 7, 2004, were heading to a premature climax. Presidential campaigns officially begin on labor day, but the 2004 campaign would kick into high gear one day later. The battle that would ensue over the events of September 8th would transcend the Presidential election. Reviewing the Rathergate sequence, one sees a certain similarity to World War I. What began as a simple war ended up launching the Soviet Union, ending the Ottoman empire and forever changing the face of the world.

In 2004, what began as another MSM/DNC attempt to install a leftist president ended up pushing the blogosphere to previously unseen heights and forever changing the role of the media. Information would never be gathered and exchanged the same way again.

Rathergate anniversary - 5 days and counting - the double digit lead

Salt asked me to publish this today.

One year ago today, another domino fell that pushed CBS into using its "October surprise" early. After the RNC 2004 convention, Time Magazine released a poll showing that Bush had opened up a double digit lead. As I commented 4 days ago:

Bush would walk away from this convention holding (by some accounts) a double digit lead (BTW - I still hate polls). That lead prompted CBS to broadcast the phony ANG documents more than a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule. The Swift Boat Vets and the GOP convention forced the MSM/DNC to run its October surprise in September. As the blogosphere proved in 2004, an October surprise doesn't work unless it is used in October. CBS' premature surprise attack left plenty of time for Powerline and Little Green Footballs to nullify the attack.

While the Time poll lead proved to be temporary, the damage was done. CBS was forced into an early lie that could be disproved (and with plenty of time for the blogosphere to do the disproving).

I can remember cautiously celebrating the news of the Time poll at the time, but none of us knew that the real cause for celebration would soon follow.
-------------------------
update. 9-07-05 - I have fixed the links for this post. The Blogger program sometimes severely limits what one can accomplish with a blog. In this case, Blogger would not allow me to transfer a post to a guest blogger for subsequent posting without destroying the links and screwing up the format of the blog. Please remember, the link garbling was Blogger's fault, not Sue Bob's. Sue Bob did an excellent job guest blogging for me over the past few days.

Rathergate anniversary - 9 days and counting - GOP 2004 convention

One year ago today the GOP 2004 convention began in New York.



I wrote two weeks ago that the sequence of events that led to Rathergate was already well underway by mid-August 2004:

The Swift Boat Vets had as much to do with Rathergate as anyone else. They pummeled Kerry with their TV ads all through August. Kerry had gained no traction from his own (end of July) convention and he fell far behind in the polls (BTW - I hate polls) by the beginning of September. The MSM/DNC was desparate.

Ann Coulter believes (and I agree) that CBS' airing of the ANG phony documents on September 8th instead of October 31st was the direct result of Kerry's wounds caused by the Swift Boat Vets. The MSM/DNC could wait no longer. The MSM/DNC would have to find something else for its October surprise. Because the Swift Boat Vets forced MSM/DNC's hand early, the blogosphere had time to react. Rathergate was a 12 day scandal. That 12 day window would not have existed in late October. Read Ann Coulter's column.

So as we look back to one year ago, the sequence that would lead to the earthquake known as Rathergate (and all that followed) was already in motion.

On August 30, 2004, another domino fell that accelerated the Rathergate countdown. With Kerry struggling after having received no momentum from his own convention, the highly successful GOP convention began. For an entire week, Republicans and Democrats combined to refocus the country's attention on the war, the continuing danger and John Kerry's lack of answers.

Bush would walk away from this convention holding (by some accounts) a double digit lead (BTW - I still hate polls). That lead prompted CBS to broadcast the phony ANG documents more than a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule. The Swift Boat Vets and the GOP convention forced the MSM/DNC to run its October surprise in September. As the blogosphere proved in 2004, an October surprise doesn't work unless it is used in October. CBS' premature surprise attack left plenty of time for Powerline and Little Green Footballs to nullify the attack.

One year ago today

Rathergate Anniversary - 10 days and counting - a new media chronology

Click here for previous editions of the Rathergate anniversary countdown.

As we begin the final ten days before the Rathergate anniversary celebration, a little reflection is in order as to how we got to the point where the new media became the force that it is today. With the MSM/DNC still hoping that blogs will go away, we cannot rely on traditional sources for information about new media history. With that in mind, here is my brief chronology of the new media, its roots and its growth. These dates include the political forces that propelled the new media revolution instead of the technological breakthroughs:

1) November 4, 1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected President in a landslide while the Republicans capture the U.S. Senate for the first time in more than 25 years. This election begins talk of a "conservative shift" in American politics. [In fact, the trend had existed for years prior to that election, but the MSM/DNC never discussed it (or even was aware of it).] Conservatism was respectable again. This election was the first concrete sign that conservatism would "sell" on a national scale. Reagan's reelection in 1984 reinforced this impression.

2) July 4, 1988 - Rush Limbaugh debuts nationally on his syndicated radio program. Rush took the Reagan election a step further and literally made conservatism marketable to a commercial audience. Rush proved that at which Reagan's election only hinted. Conservatism sells. Not merely politically, but commercially. Without Reagan's election in 1980, I believe that Rush Limbaugh would never have been given the opportunity to turn conservatism into nationwide commercial success.

3) November 8, 1994 - Republicans capture the U.S. House [for the first time in 40 years] and recapture the U.S. Senate [all while Bill Clinton masquerades as a centrist]. The messages of 1980 and 1988 are reinforced. Opposition and reaction to the Clinton administration would grow throughout the 1990's, as conservatives would continue to find each other [through the internet and talk radio] in their efforts to speak out against the President.

4) January 17, 1998 - Matt Drudge exposes the Lewinsky scandal. Regardless of the fact that Bill Clinton survived impeachment, this story and the manner of its exposure provided the first instance of an internet source matching the power of the MSM/DNC. News reporting would never be the same after this event.

5) September 8, 2004. Rathergate. While the Rathergate story was broken by bloggers, the previous breakthroughs made this story possible. Drudge linked to the bloggers' early posts in the hours after CBS aired the phony documents. By 2004, Drudge had grown to the point where a mere link from Drudge was sufficient to send an otherwise worthy story into orbit. While bloggers existed prior to Rathergate, Rathergate put blogging on the map.

We are actually experiencing a 25 year revolution. I have ignored many of the events of the past year, each of which has been tremendously significant - Easongate, Koran/toiletgate, etc. I have also ignored the influence of events such as 9-11 and the two elections of George W. Bush. These events have tended to focus conservatives and bloggers, as we discuss the issues of war, peace and related politics. The same MSM/DNC mismanagement of our country that gave us Bill Clinton, a phony Florida election dispute and 9-11 also made blogging and the new media necessary. But it was the initiative of a few conservatives who dared to defy the MSM/DNC media monopoly that made the new media possible.

There are more breakthroughs to come. Those who take the new media to new heights in the future will stand on the shoulders of giants such as Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge.

Rathergate anniversary - 25 days and counting - Swift Boat Vets, the run up to Rathergate - what a difference one year makes

One year ago today, I stumbled onto the blogosphere for the first time when I followed a Lucianne.com link to a Captain's Quarters post regarding the Swift Boat Vets. The story of my discovery of this post and Captain Ed's blog is discussed here.

By mid-August 2004, the Swift Boat story had been brewing for some time. It is difficult to assign an anniversary date to that story, so August 14th is as good a date as any (not really, but I don't feel like doing more research right now).

The Swift Boat Vets had as much to do with Rathergate as anyone else. They pummeled Kerry with their TV ads all through August. Kerry had gained no traction from his own (end of July) convention and he fell far behind in the polls (BTW - I hate polls) by the beginning of September. The MSM/DNC was desparate.

Ann Coulter believes (and I agree) that CBS' airing of the ANG phony documents on September 8th instead of October 31st was the direct result of Kerry's wounds caused by the Swift Boat Vets. The MSM/DNC could wait no longer. The MSM/DNC would have to find something else for its October surprise. Because the Swift Boat Vets forced MSM/DNC's hand early, the blogosphere had time to react. Rathergate was a 12 day scandal. That 12 day window would not have existed in late October. Read Ann Coulter's column.

So as we look back to one year ago, the sequence that would lead to the earthquake known as Rathergate (and all that followed) was already in motion. But none of us had any idea that events would move so quickly. The Swift Boat Vets were beating up Kerry, the MSM/DNC was desparate to save Kerry, and the blogosphere stood ready to expose MSM/DNC lies.

One year ago today, the network news was still dominated by the big three anchors that had occupied their chairs for the previous 20+ years. The "celebrity anchor" was very much a force to be reckoned with. Today, all three celebrity anchors are now gone, while the blogosphere's power to force the truth on to the front pages is recognized (but not admitted) by all. For those who are still in doubt, read the latest events in the growing Air America scandal.

One year makes a tremendous difference. I cannot wait to see what strides we make by this time in 2006.

Rathergate anniversary - 36 days and counting - Air America Scandal

One of the most enduring effects of the Rathergate scandal will be our ability to use Dan Rather as a metaphor to expose and discuss other MSM/DNC scandals. Scrappleface proves this point today by using Dan Rather as a parody for the Air America scandal:

Mr. Rather said, "If there has been any wrongdoing here, I want to break that story."

Rathergate will provide us with joke material to use as a launching pad into other scandals for many years to come.

Click here for previous posts on the significance of the Rathergate countdown.

Rathergate anniversary - 39 days and counting - Judge Posner, New York Times miss the point

In an otherwise biased article that misses the point, the following appears in the New York Times today:

The conventional news media are embattled. Attacked by both left and right in book after book, rocked by scandals, challenged by upstart bloggers, they have become a focus of controversy and concern. Their audience is in decline, their credibility with the public in shreds. In a recent poll conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 65 percent of the respondents thought that most news organizations, if they discover they've made a mistake, try to ignore it or cover it up, and 79 percent opined that a media company would hesitate to carry negative stories about a corporation from which it received substantial advertising revenues.

The MSM/DNC will never understand the forces that undermine its power and credibility as long as it pretends to be "attacked by both left and right." The MSM/DNC will never "get it" as long as it focuses on "advertising" instead of leftist ideology as the source of its credibility decline.

The article is useful notwithstanding its errors, as it details the MSM/DNC's decline. [See also this post and Chapter 5 of Hugh Hewitt's book, "Blog."].

The poll referenced by the NYT article chronicles the MSM/DNC decline only through 2000, so it fails to note the impact of Rathergate. But the poll and the article demonstrate that Rathergate was a result, more than a cause, of the MSM/DNC decline. Years of lies and biased coverage made Rathergate inevitable. The climate was ripe for a scandal in which a major MSM/DNC unit like CBS would be caught red-handed. Had 60 minutes elected to pass on the national guard story, some other MSM/DNC unit would have been caught in some major lie sooner or later. [See the 2005 list for some examples.] And that lie would have rocketed the blogosphere into the major national prominence that it enjoys today. As one who knows how to connect dots can glean from the NYT article, years of bias had so eroded MSM/DNC credibility with the public that one major lie just as the election campaign was heating up was all that it took to push the MSM/DNC over the edge.

If I worked at the New York Times, I would stop trying to demonize the Swift Boat Vets and update my polling information to reflect the continued MSM/DNC decline following September 8, 2004.

Click here for previous posts on the significance of Rathergate.