Rathergate

I fell asleep last night with the television on and awoke in the middle of the night to CBS' overnight news program, To The Minute. A report was being run about Dan Rather's admission/apology last evening for the apparently phony documents regarding Bush's failure to report while in the Texas Air National Guard. I didn't clock it, but the segment ran probably close to five minutes (a similar report this morning ran three minutes).

What the fuck is wrong with the priorities of the national news media that that much time is being devoted to a reporter/news network's being duped, yet investigations regarding actual breaches of national security (Valerie Plame for one) are hardly, if ever mentioned?

On CBS' The Early Show, coverage of John Kerry's speech regarding Iraq was reduced to one line from his extremely scathing speech on Bush's misguided war in Iraq, along with a clip of Bush characterizing the speech as "yet another change of position" for Kerry. The CBS report then went on to run a clip of Kerry on Late Night with David Letterman last night cracking a joke. I didn't catch the name of the talking head, but his only comment was (paraphrasing), "John Kerry has to start showing that he's actually human."

Jesus. Fucking. Christ!!

Where on earth is journalism actually practiced?

[Exhaling...]

Apparently not on CNN...

James Wolcott has a lighter take on Rathergate, with a jab at CNN's less-than-eminent Wolf Blitzer.

CNN Admits It Cannot Prove Authenticity of Wolf Blitzer

In a shock announcement that will reverberate through broadcast journalism, CNN has acknowledged that it can no longer vouch for the authenticity of host Wolf Blitzer.

more >>