So much has been written about the CBS forged memo story (read a good summary here). I have never seen so much discourse surrounding the actual reporting of a story versus the story itself. I personally declare 2004 to be the year of the media shift. It's the year that the blogosphere kicked "Dan Rather's" ego in the tush. Even today, Dan is sticking to his story, but the blogosphere has all but completely discredited his story.
By the way, as a former ANG member and technical writer with over ten years of design and layout experience, I can personally say the CBS memos are forged.
This whole memo scandal is an example of how people used to believe the written word, or even the media unchecked. I continually see pundits on television making assertions I know to be false and nobody seems to care. Only recently have I seen complete fisking of those pundits on blogs. Like me, many bloggers are media junkies, which also makes them excellent fact checkers–apparently better than CBS News' own fact checkers.
Just because it's written down on paper or broadcast on TV doesn't make it true. There is a change coming where entire communities of people are distrustful of the news, and it's a good thing. The Rome of media is falling and in its place a marketplace of intellect, opinion, and personality will take its place. CBS was suckered by something they either wanted to be true or they wanted to broadcast more than they wanted to verify the documents. The end result is that a million observers didn't accept CBS as the authority, further eroding the grip of traditional media on the minds of viewers. Another Steven Glass or Jayson Blair or forged document will continue to push the traditional media outlets into irrelevance.
Traditional media should get on board and start acting more like bloggers. There is nothing wrong with correcting a story within hours of broadcast–viewers would have more respect for those that did. There is nothing wrong with pursuing the truth, even if it directly conflicts with your own personal political views. There is also nothing wrong with asking for help from more than just a single expert.
Finally, CBS claims their source for the documents is "unimpeachable". Eventually traditional media may not be able to hide behind sources anymore. Unnamed sources are used far too many times to drive the tone of what should be objective reporting. I'm starting to think that "unnamed sources" actually means "my own opinion". I'm not the only one who thinks that reporters do whatever they can to push an opinion into their stories. Negative opinion about traditional media isn't coming from media haters. Like I said before, most bloggers are information junkies and spend a lot of time listening to the radio, watching TV, and, of course, blogging.
Traditional media better change their ways or they will become as obsolete as data punch cards are in the computer world. Bloggers are here to stay and are a valuable resource for sharing news and opinion, even if we all do it in our jammies.
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