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."

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Update - Rathergate in light of September's events.

Thomas Sowell - William Buckley and the New Media

I and others have written a great deal about William Buckley since his death more than a week ago. Much more needs to be written, as this important figure played a pivotal role in modern conservative thought. Thomas Sowell contributes to this discussion as he notes how differently certain incidents might have ended up had the media's role been different. With regard to Vietnam's Tet Offensive:

There was a time when Walter Cronkite's version of what was happening in Vietnam was enough to force a change in policy more disastrous than the Communist offensive which Cronkite depicted as a big loss to American military forces, when in fact the American military inflicted a crushing defeat on the Communist guerrillas.

Imagine how differently that war might have turned out -- how many millions of people in Southeast Asia might not have been slaughtered by Communist governments there -- if there had been a sizable contingent of conservative journalists to tell a very different story from that told by Walter Cronkite and the liberal media.

Modern conservatives are only now learning and discussing how wrong Cronkite was.
Sowell notes that the reverse holds true with regard to modern events that the MSM/DNC was unable to control:

By the same token, think how successful Cronkite's successor, Dan Rather, might have been with his fake documents about President Bush's National Guard service, broadcast on the eve of the 2004 elections, if the fraud had not been exposed immediately by conservatives on the Internet, on talk radio, and in newspapers.

We owe a debt not only to Buckley, but to the modern pioneers of the alternative media, such as Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge. As I wrote almost 2 weeks ago:

Buckley was a throwback to the era when the MSM/DNC enjoyed a virtual monopoly on information. I first discovered Buckley in the early 1980's. At that time, I was treated to an almost non-stop barrage of twisted news presentations, distorted facts, repeats of Democrat talking points, etc. from the nightly news and the pages of newspapers. Once a week, William Buckley (and a very few others) would have one chance to rebut the entire MSM/DNC in the confined space of an opinion column on the editorial page of some newspapers. Even though it was hardly a fair fight, Buckley's (and others') few inches of weekly space was more than a match for the daily rants of the NYT, AP, WaPo, John Chancellor, Walter Cronkite, etc. Buckley kept the conservative light glowing until the New Media could begin fanning the flames at the end of the 1980's.

Conservatives born after 1975 cannot fully appreciate what it was like to live in the era before the New Media existed. Buckley was one voice that helped make that era bearable.

The MSM/DNC still lies and is more leftwing now than ever before, but at least must endure real competition.

The Monica Lewinsky 10 year anniversary; Drudge Report makes history.

What were you doing when the world changed forever ten years ago today? We all remember what we were doing when we heard the first reports of 9-11. Those of us who are old enough remember where we were when JFK's murder was announced. The signature event in the destruction of the MSM/DNC news monopoly that had dominated the United States (and beyond) for decades was no less momentous.

Ten years ago today, Matt Drudge posted a report that Newsweek was sitting on a story that the President had perjured himself in a civil trial to cover up acts of sexual misconduct in the White House.

The story remained on the Drudge Report for days before the MSM/DNC reluctantly began covering the story. Drudge had a decent following even before the Lewinsky story broke, and the unrebutted allegations on his website threatened to make the MSM/DNC appear complicit in a cover up if it did not appear to begin reporting the story. I first heard about this story in an early morning ABC News report around the 20th or 21st of January.

I had never heard of Drudge at that time. It would be weeks before I would learn of Drudge's involvement. It would be even longer before I fully understood the significance of Drudge's ability to circumvent the gatekeepers and break this (or any other) story.

The full story is included in Drudge's book:



Regardless of the effect on the Clinton administration, the world changed forever with the posting of that story. Never again would the gatekeepers have full power to decide what information we receive. Drudge has increased in readership dramatically ever since. The king has lost its ability to compel a lie.

This type of media revolution was foreseen by Hillary Clinton in the mid-1990's, whose administration tried desperately to thwart it during the rest of its time in office. [Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.]

The blogs that stopped Dan Rather during Rathergate stood on the shoulders of Drudge, as links from Drudge to Powerline and Little Green Footballs helped alert the country about Rather's and CBS' attempts to influence an election with forged documents.

We must celebrate this and every new media anniversary, or the MSM/DNC gatekeepers will reinterpret events, downplay the important parts and misrepresent history. The revolution continues, but we must never lose the ground that we have already conquered.

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update -

Very few bloggers have mentioned the anniversary. It appears that even the conservatives have missed the point. Most of them think of this incident as just another Clinton scandal. They fail to realize that this scandal was about more than Bill Clinton and an intern. This scandal was about a media revolution in progress. Just as Rathergate transcends Dan Rather and George Bush, the Lewinsky scandal transcends Bill and Monica.

There is a reason that so few true pioneers exist. Only a few individuals recognize the long range possibilities resulting from any innovation. The rest of us follow in the wake of these pioneers and, if we are lucky, make the most of the opportunities that the pioneers have provided.

I re-read some of the pages from the Drudge Manifesto this evening and was, once again, fascinated by the unfolding story - not of the sex, perjury and obstruction - but of Drudge's first post and the immediate aftermath. Pages 55-67 of the Manifesto bear witness to a part of history that has been hidden in plain site.

Drudge talks about his discovery of the story and how it developed during the hours leading up to the fateful post. He discusses his thoughts at the moment he hit "enter" on the fateful story. What follows is a narrative of two days of silence, in which MSM/DNC said nothing, while a tempest erupted below the surface. Drudge remained barricaded in his apartment for most of that time. After nearly 30 hours of silence, Freepers were suggesting that Drudge had been set up for a lawsuit by Newsweek.

Meanwhile, the Clinton White House frantically followed the story in silence. ". . . and White House staffers are reloading and refreshing the DRUDGE REPORT as fast as the circuits allow. Over 6,000 visits from the eop.gov domain in the last 39 hrs. [as of Monday afternoon - 1-19-98 - ed]"

Similar backstage stories exist for each of the MSM/DNCscandals of recent years, but the participants haven't committed those stories to writing. How many of us have felt a small "rush" as we hit "enter" on our latest bombshell post, imagining the unseen effects around the world or around the corner?

The events of January 17, 1998 (and the hours that followed) provide not only a window into history, but incentive for us to continue our own efforts in the new media revolution.

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update - Michelle Malkin has a bumper sticker.

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.

American Thinker; MSM/DNC scandals; itemized list

American Thinker has posted an itemized list of MSM/DNC scandals from the past few years. Great job [even though I like my list better.]

The author asks the right questions also:

These offenses have been going on for years, long before the internet. But there does seems to be a rise in the number of reported offenses in recent years. Did the number of offenses go up, or did the fraction of discovered offenses go up?

In a good number of these cases, the errors were caught by non-journalists, sometimes communicating over the internet.

If it is "too good to be true", or just too politically correct to be true, take it with a grain of salt - several grains, apparently, if from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, CNN or Reuters.

The Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize just ain't all they're cracked up to be.

If this is the visible part of the iceberg, just how big is the iceberg?

A key anniversary in the 2d American revolution - Rush Limbaugh broadcast anniversary

Today is the 19th anniversary of the day that Rush Limbaugh went national with his radio program. I wrote the following in 2005:

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.

That paragraph listed one item in a series of numerous events that formed the "new media" revolution. Without that revolution, the amnesty bill would have been adopted last month, Dan Rather would be a hero for exposing George Bush' national guard story and Hillary Clinton would likely have already been crowned empress by now instead of being a leading candidate for President.

Quote of the day - Trent Lott

Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.

Trent Lott - June 15, 2007

[Speaking about opposition to the immigration-amnesty deal.]