Black Rock or Black Rubble?

I've been grinning, non-stop, since CBS made liberal cheerleading more important than journalistic objectivity. And scouring dictionaries for appropriate words: Chortle. Guffaw. Howl. English seems insufficient for the forged National Guard letters, which NRO's Jonah Goldberg rightly labels "the greatest story since Noah got all those animals on a boat."

Dan Rather said CBS investigated for weeks. Various blogs--particularly Powerline and LGF--called the letters "fakes" within 24 hours. Hugh Hewett collects the evidence. Dr. Joseph M. Newcomer, "one of the pioneers of electronic typesetting," supplies the proof.

Long-term results of CBS's bias:

1. The Bush National Guard Story is Dead: Further investigation would be hesitant and tainted.



2. Congressional and Commission Investigation: The Hill (at least the House) will hold hearings, and the FCC will be flooded with complaints (which they will duck).



3. Traditional Media's Dead: Powerline predicts "the networks abdicated their authority with the American people." Lileks says it was suicide:

   Blogs haven't toppled old media. The foundations of Old Media were rotten already. The new media came along at the right time. Put it this way: you've see films of old buildings detonated by precision demolitionists. First you see the puffs of smoke -- then the building just hangs there for a second, even though every column that held it up has been severed. We've been living in that second for years, waiting for the next frame. Well, here it is. Roll tape. Down she goes. And when the dust settles we will be right back where we were 100 years ago, with dozens of fiercely competitive media outlets throwing elbows to earn your pennies.

   Either way, it's the death knell of traditional media's monopoly on news.



4. Kerry's Toast: He already was a loser. But if the forgeries came from the campaign, as the American Spectator reports, it's gonna be a landslide.

Note to Dems: don't blame middle American complacency, the "vast right-wing conspiracy," the Supreme Court or Halliburton. It's an inside job, says Mark Steyn:

Remind me never to complain about 'liberal media bias' again. Right now, liberal media bias is conspiring to assist the Democrats to sleepwalk over the cliff.

CBS bet its headquarters building (called the Black Rock) on a drive-by slander, says Investor's Business Daily:

Could it be that CBS and Rather wanted to take Bush down a peg — especially given the questions about John Kerry's Vietnam service raised by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?

And could it be that CBS and Rather let their well-documented political leanings overrule their journalistic sense? Have they become just another hack voice in the political game?

Sure it could. The media went "all in" to elect Kerry. Now they're busted, turning the Big Black Rock into little charred rubble. De mortuis nihil nisi bene.

More:

LGF reports Time Magazine still backs CBS, based on an expert's determination, apparently employing an industry term of art, that the evidence of fraud is "full of crap."

Still More:

The Shape of Days blog conclusively demonstrates that IBM typewriters commercially available in 1972/73 could not have produced the CBS memos. And don't miss William Safire recommending Rather show some "courage."