Rather Fake

Monday morning CBS News should fire Dan Rather. Rather is supposed to be a news man, he is supposed to fairly report the events as they happen and be a source of information, he is not supposed to be a political operative. Instead of doing his job he has operated as a political agent against George W. Bush and has tried to knowingly lied to the American people in an attempt to damage the president by releasing false information.

Right now CBS is trying to convince people that the memos Rather put on the air are real, they are not. The media passed over the fact that Rather's guest on CBS's 60 minutes, Ben Barnes, told a story that directly contradicted sworn testimony he gave a few years ago. Big media tried to ignore the fact that Barnes is by definition, a liar. The media tried to ignore the fact that the documents these two put on the air were created on Microsoft Word, not a typewriter in 1973. The big media tried to ignore the fact that the man who supposedly helped Bush in the Texas Air National Gaurd in 1973 actually left the National Gaurd in 1972. The media tried to ignore the whole deal.

Fortunately in 2004 we have a strong and growing New Media, faster, more disperse, and more expert than the Old Media institutions. New Media wouldn't let the story go, New Media pushed the story, disseminated it, and then asked "why is Old Media ignoring this?". Enough people heard the story, saw the documents and asked the same questions that by late Thursday the story was showing up, first as a short addition to stories based on the documents, and then later as real stories.

Will CBS fire Rather, no. Will other Old media outlets really jump on the story, probably not, should they? yes. Some of them will, some won't. The ones that will are going to be forced to take a critical look at how partisans like Rather can influence news content, they will have to critique the way news organizations will run with half baked stories so they don't get scooped by their competition, and they will have to look at how sensationalistic the news has become. Nobody wants to do that. It would be easier to run a story about the new season of Survivor, or Joey! Than it would be to take a serious look at how structural problems in the media are dangerous to the democratic process. Since most Americans would be bored by a serious look at how we learn about our leaders, I guess I can't blame them, but I can keep reminding people that media companies are entertainment companies, not news organizations.