Here's what has had me PO'ed about the news coverage of "it's forged".

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

Sorry if I'm rehashing, I couldn't STAND to read the 5,000 DU threads on the topic, and the 50% of those that are board sabotage.

What I was seeing on CNN and FOX at the work lounge TVs yesterday (I rarely watch TV when I'm home) was this: "An independent source has questioned the authenticity of the documents, noting that the proportional spacing appeared produced by a word processor and could not be produced by the typewriters of that era. CBS and Dan Rather have stated that they stand by the authenticity of their report blah blah blah..."

That's almost verbatim what I heard over and over on CNN headline news and similar to what was on FOX. It's just, "an independent source said this" and "CBS/Dan Rather said that". He said. She said.

There was no, "we decided to take our own look into the controversy. Here's what the 'indep source' is alleging, here's an IBM typewriter from 1969 and the type that it produces etc... Here is a proportionally spaced document produced by MS Word on a laser printer. What our own investigation showed is this... we then asked CBS to show us the actual documents that they obtained, and to examine them under their supervision..." "CBS has cited the following evidence in support of their claims of the documents' authenticity: their handwriting analysis. Analysis of the paper and ink etc..."

ISN'T THIS KIND OF THING (my last paragraph) WHAT NEWS MEDIA IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?

The problem is, when the coverage is this shallow, then what does it matter that CNN HN broadcasts 24/7? It's just 20 min worth of shallow crap repeated 48 times a day. A well done half hour or hour news show will provide much more valuable insight into any issue.

[Fovea]

1. What news media...

Journalism is now marketing and political patronage.
The old standards only apply in rare cases.

[Prodemsouth]

2. Yes, and someone needs to call them on it. This is an example of how lazy

they are. Pigs, I hope they are on the rotisserie rack soon.

[Philostopher]

3. Entertainment Tonight goes to more trouble

to source its stories, you're right.

I doubt there are many at the other networks, anymore, who would be up to the task of actually refuting the story the way you say, though. I don't think it's being taught in little journalists' school anymore, and it certainly isn't being taught to people who are expected to be pretty enough to stand in front of a camera. Maybe it never was -- they didn't use to sign people on, even at TV news organizations, solely for their ability to draw viewers with their pretty faces. There used to be beat reporters, who often looked like they kept their faces under the bed in a shoebox, and the talking heads, who looked good. Now, they don't get a job if they don't look good, and they're much more likely to sound like they keep their brains in a shoebox under the bed than look like they keep their faces there.

How the hell else would Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Ed Bradley or any of the rest of the dying breed of genuine investigative journalists ever have stayed in the basket while the chaff was blowing away, if the standards of hiring in the news industry hadn't changed? I don't think, in other words, that TV news programs feel it's important that their journalists be able to think, anymore, because they're feeding a public that chooses not to think, and that the news organizations prefer to keep unthinking.

That Republicans benefit most from this may or may not be incidental.

[fearnobush]

4. Totally agree. If it's in the media and it's being questioned, It's bad

for the Chimpster. All media, FOX included, questioned and even flat out rejected the SBVT on Kerry, but the effect of constant exposure did do some damage. What this does is it drives down those happy freepy Chimp feelings caused by the GOP hate fest and the total exploitation of 911. See new TFT AWOL ad: <http://www.texansfortruth.com/>

[Elidor]

5. Sorry, we have only stenographers

All the reporters live abroad for the most part, Sy Hersh and Greg Palast excepted, among precious few others.

This stuff on the air is NOT NEWS. It just LOOKS LIKE NEWS. They've taken out all the content in favor of 100% filler! These people on the air are masquerading as journalists, and until the people wake up, they'll go on doing so.

Our country is in some deep, deep shit, and our failed "news media" are an even bigger part of the problem than this miserable Texas pudknocker and his snarling gang of accomplices. After all, they enabled him. Without them, he could never have done all this. And there are plenty more to come along after him if things continue.

I woke up one day and realized what unmitigated bullshit was coming out of my TV and I unplugged it and disconnected the cable and there the boob tube sits, as useful now as it ever was when it was connected. I need to put some plants atop it or something. Maybe turn it into a fish tank.

And while we're ranting about the news media, tell me how many hours they've devoted to mea culpas over the SBVT fiasco. I can just here Wolf Blitzer apologizing for all the time they gave to that crap. Yeah, right.

[Cogito ergo doleo]

6. It didn't take long to research the claims

here on DU! There was no way to authenticate the documents, but there was enough uncovered within a couple of hours of the forgery claim on DU, to debunk the criteria used to make the claims the documents were forgeries. For example, it was discovered that an IBM Selectric could have been used (proportional spacing, curly apostrophes, superscript), and that they were common; that the font was not identical to MS Times New Roman and that Times New Roman had been drawn in 1931; and that the document was probably typed.

DU's efforts proved the media incompetent and if there was a journalist worth a damn he'd write an article about how a group of people on an Internet message board debunked the main criteria for the documents being fake within a short time, while the media kept on reporting the disinformation being fed to them. The media really did prove how astonishingly inept they are.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. Broadcast news: Is that all there is? Blow-dried pretty boys/girls

who sit in front of a camera and read, "The administration says..."?

Are we already in a dictatorship, if the dictators dictate, and the stenographers take dictation?