*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://dowire.org *** *** Headlines from top blogs: http://dowire.org/feeds ***
From: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0922/p01s03-stin.html Blogs look burly after kicking sand on CBS Bloggers enjoy a moment of glory after pooling their expertise to uncover the truth about the forged memos on Bush's service record. By Stephen Humphries | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Scott Johnson took a bite out of CBS's "60 Minutes II" and came away with 15 minutes of fame. Mr. Johnson, a Minneapolis lawyer with a political website called Power Line, proved to be instrumental in challenging the authenticity of documents CBS used to impugn George W. Bush's record in the National Guard. On Sept. 9, the morning after CBS aired its report about Mr. Bush, Johnson updated his blog with comments from readers who believed that the documents - allegedly written 32 years ago - were forgeries. Questioning everything from the memos' military jargon to whether a 1970s typewriter could have produced the "proportionally spaced fonts" on the documents, the blog (short for web log) soon drew the attention of other bloggers - and the mainstream media. Twelve days later, after intense research by print and TV journalists, CBS conceded that it couldn't vouch for the documents' authenticity. Its Monday admission deals a blow to the credibility of CBS News and anchor Dan Rather, who had defended his "60 Minutes II" report. But the episode has jolted the media establishment in another way: It served notice that there's an aggressive new watchdog in town, in the form of thousands of bloggers willing - even eager - to question, nitpick, or attack reports in the mainstream media ... More: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0922/p01s03-stin.html ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org EDem's Election 2004 Links: http://e-democracy.org/us *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** New RSS XML Feed Available: *** http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/maillist.xml
