I was talking to Charles Johnson yesterday that it just might be time to raise BlogAd rates from their relatively miniscule amounts (given the recent traffic) when I read the latest Blather from Rather excerpted from an interview in The New York Observer.
“I think the public, even decent people who may be well-disposed toward President Bush, understand that powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about the documents because they can’t deny the fundamental truth of the story,” Rather told the paper. [emph mine, obviously]
Well-financed? Who’s he talking about here? VodkaPundit? I saw some fancy vintages in his stash. Or Belmont Club? Kind of a tony name, isn’t it, and he lives in Australia, maybe even beach front property. No, could be Mr. Johnson himself. He’s probably rolling in residuals from all those Al Jarreau albums he played backup on years ago. Thanks for clarifying that, Dan. Maybe I will raise those BlogAd rates. It’s a moment of opportunity. A lot of advertisers should be leaving CBS.
MEANWHILE: Some reading matter while waiting for CBS to make its statement. (After all, it may take a while).
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45 Comments
1. Katherine:Well, Charles Johnson admitted that he blogs in 3 piece Armani suit, so he must be rollingÖ.
Sep 15, 2004 - 12:45 pm 2. Knucklehead:Yeah, Rather knows Larger Truths which you steenking big-money Republican shills will never know.
Sep 15, 2004 - 12:54 pm 3. Knucklehead:VodkaPundit says they’ve delayed til 5PM. Good grief, that must one carefully crafted email.
Reminds me of a children’s song…
The wheels on the bus go thump-thump-thump, thump-thump-thump…
If its taking this long I’m altering my prediction to “somebody’s getting tossed under the bus”.
Sep 15, 2004 - 12:58 pm 4. mongai:As a member of the public, and sometimes a decent person, and well-disposed toward President Bush, no Dan I don’t understand what on earth you are talking about. Is he senile? The only powerful and well-financed forces I see as players in this story are CBS and the DNC. If it is such a “fundamental truth” why did you need to whip-up some forged papers at the very last moment to prove it. CBS has been investigating this “truth” for how many years now? On the other hand, might they know of some other papers they can’t quite get their hands on and this has driven them to the point of desperation? Desperate men do desperate things.
Sep 15, 2004 - 12:59 pm 5. PeterUK:“I think the public, even decent people who may be well-disposed toward President Bush”.
The implication being that Bush supporters are indecent,the source of such mendacity and improbity is beyond the pail and is falling into the realms of mythomania.Time to read the necrologue on Rathers career.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:09 pm 6. OldManRick:Why the delay? I think there having trouble finding anyone to take the “over 30 minutes” slot in the office pool on how long before the new story is destroyed.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:11 pm 7. Charlie (Colorado):Boston Globe correction.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:27 pm 8. flenser:From The American Spectator
According to a CBS News producer operating out of the network’s 57th Street facilities, Rather and his supporters now believe the controversy surrounding the four discredited Texas National Guard memos has been engineered by the Bush campaign.
“All you have to see to understand this is the report that John Roberts did on Bush’s appearance at the National Guard convention Tuesday,” says a CBS News producer. “Rather’s guys are now going after the president of the United States in a way probably no news organization has ever done before. This is now deeply personal to them.”
“In the end, it probably doesn’t matter,” says the CBS News producer. “We’re sunk. Our reputations have been impugned, and if we didn’t look like we were shilling for Kerry a week ago, we look like we’re trying to at least protect a source who gave us these documents who might be supportive of Kerry or at least the Democratic Party.”
Maybe there will be a palace revolt at CBS yet.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:34 pm 9. Kevin P:roger:
From Todays LA Times- “CBS was had. It’s hard to reach any other conclusion about documents that CBS and anchor Dan rather have defended as revealing the truth………But who fed a seeming ringer to CBS and why did the network fal for it?”
Rather is dead. If the LA Times editorial page that is headed by Kinsley is bailing on him everyone will eventually. The Times would rather swallow glass then print anything that would in any small way help the Bush administration so for them to fire the Watergate style what did you know and when did you know it arrows at CBS is the final warning sign to Danny Boy that no one has his back and he might as well send up the white flag and beg for mercy.
Yes the Times will go with the ‘greater truth ” meme. Yes the Times will borrow the cycle of violence cliche like logic to try to compare the swifties story and Rathergate as comparable frauds. But for them to dump Rather so forcefully should signal to CBS that they better clean house and do it quickly before Rather drags their news division into Kitty Kelly territory.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:50 pm 10. Kevin P:Roger:
It just hit me. Maybe Kitty Kelly is Rather’s unimpeachable source!
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:51 pm 11. ambisinistral:From the Observer article, “Mr. Rather said that it would require an exceptional amount of knowledge to craft a forgery”
Oh, the irony in that quote.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:53 pm 12. RogerA:Here it is at R hour minus 6 minutes. I wonder how long it will take the blogosphere to chew up the statement and spit it back. Certainly less than hour.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:54 pm 13. marek:Roger,
For sure Rather knows something we don’t. The question are what, how long and from whom?
Shana tova.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:55 pm 14. someone:Some, uh, interesting speculation on this stuff at Rantburg.
Sep 15, 2004 - 1:56 pm 15. Knucklehead:Ambi,
Thanks! I was just pondering that in my knuckleheaded way… “Wait a sec here! Did he say the documents can’t be forgeries ’cause forgeries would be much better done?”
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:11 pm 16. Yehudit:” It just hit me. Maybe Kitty Kelly is Rather’s unimpeachable source!”
I’m not going to go digging for the link, but apparently the Killian “memos” are mentioned in Kelley’s new book. Along with Laura Bush as cocaine dealer, etc. Yeah, real credible . . .
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:12 pm 17. Yehudit:” It just hit me. Maybe Kitty Kelly is Rather’s unimpeachable source!”
I’m not going to go digging for the link, but apparently the Killian “memos” are mentioned in Kelley’s new book. Along with Laura Bush as cocaine dealer, etc. Yeah, real credible . . .
Apologies if this posts twice – I just got an error message.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:13 pm 18. Charlie (Colorado):It’s now 17:22 EDT. Anyone heard anything?
I think Rather’s fighting hard with Viacom&CBS execs.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:22 pm 19. Knucklehead:Charlie (C),
I think they’re the dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on RatherGone’s gilded parachute.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:30 pm 20. Mark Poling:A gilded parachute. I like the physics of that….
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:33 pm 21. Sandy P:Not cocaine, dime bags of pot.
If we make a mistake, you know we’ll be jumped on.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:36 pm 22. Catherine:Peter UK
Yeah, well, remember my Upper West Side dinner:
“George Bush will not win re-election, because Americans are decent people, and no decent person will vote for George Bush.”
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:37 pm 23. Catherine:And think about it: the woman who made that comment had no idea what my politics were.
Having just met me, and having (apparently) concluded that I belonged amongst the Decent, she assumed I would be voting for whatever Democrat the primary process managed to cough up.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:39 pm 24. ms anne:that link to waiting for godot ranks right up there with lileks guy in pajamas and slippers for a welcome laugh out loud. i appreciate smart folks who slap out some humor, the kind you used to find in newsrooms.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:39 pm 25. Sandy P:5 years of working on this story and NOW he decides to talk to the secretary, via Glenn:
YUP, RATHER IS TALKING TO THE SECRETARY
Score one for my sources that I can’t name.
Howard Kurtz, who has just kicked tushie on this story since Day One, is on CNN now, and confirms that Rather is interviewing 86-year-old Marian Carr Knox, former secretary to Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.
Does this mean CBS is sticking by the memos? Or are they going to concede on the memos, and somehow try to insist that the attention should now shift to Bush’s insufficient answers to the questions raised by the fake memos?
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:44 pm 26. Charlie (Colorado):I think they’re the dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on RatherGone’s gilded parachute.
Knuck, I’m betting that Rather is fighting hard against the retraction the lawyers and mgt. are trying to force down his throat. I would guess there is some question about whether Rather will resign or not….
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:45 pm 27. someone:Catherine, this link is for you (and Yehudit). (Note followups here.)
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:47 pm 28. PeterArgus:Wow its crowded. Any seats left? Sullivan’s email of the day is interesting – poster is going to vote for Bush precisely because of this fiasco. I think he/she might not be alone – CBS and the DNC’s hubris has beaten any campaign effort I have seen in my politically conscious life.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:49 pm 29. mezzrow:And then Dan stood, picked up his Vegas lounge microphone, and sang:
“Some people’s hot
Some people’s cold
Some people’s not very
Swift to behold
Some people do it
Some see right through it
Some wear pyjamas
If only they knew it
The pyjamas people are boring me to pieces
They make me feel like I am wasting my time
They all got flannel up ‘n down ‘em
A little trap-door back aroun’ ‘em
An’ some cozy little *footies* on their mind
Po-jama people!
Po-jama people, people!
Lawd, they make you sleepy
With the things they might say
Po-jama people!
Po-jama people, people!
*Mother, Mary ‘n Jozuf*, wish they’d all go away!
Po-jama people!
It’s a po-jama people special…
Take one home with you & save a dollar today
Po-jama people!
Po-jama people, people!
Wrap ‘em up
Roll ‘em out
Get ‘em out of my way…”
HOY! HOY! HOY!
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:55 pm 30. RogerA:Geez: with all the time this is taking you have to be thinking “billable hours.” The lawyers must be really involved.
Sep 15, 2004 - 2:57 pm 31. PeterUK:Catherine,
I find socialist billionaires indecent,anyone who votes for one has to be so far divorced from reality as to need treatment.It is time the Ketchup Magnates Widow released her tax returns,it is indecent that her husband can be involved in legislation that will never affect him.
It is also indecent that supporters of the putative president forge documents to get him elected.
It is indecent when the means justified by the ends become the ends in themselves.
Sorry your dinner was spoiled,you should have dropped a bread roll in her soup.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:02 pm 32. Jamie Irons:someone
Not being either Catherine or Yehudit, I hope it’s OK I followed your link.
I could really identify with the writer.
I am assistant chief of a large department in a large medical center in Northern California. In a year or so, I’ll be chief.
I cannot talk with anyone about politics. All my colleagues (fine people one and all) suffer from severe B.D.S.
I have to quietly endure, giving nothing away, the most ridiculous and offensive statements daily.
I do it not for myself (well, not mostly for myself), but for the good of my department, and the harmony of the work environment, and for my patients.
Jamie Irons
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:06 pm 33. Katherine:ìThe implication being that Bush supporters are indecentî
ìGeorge Bush will not win re-election, because Americans are decent people, and no decent person will vote for George Bush.î
Sigh.
It must be true, then. I guess I am deproived on account of being deproived.
I already admitted to not caring for ìsweet little old ladiesî. But I do like babies! I swear!
MmmÖ.babiesÖ.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:07 pm 34. RogerA:Katherine: exactly–sweet little old ladies tend to be stringy; babies do not require a moist heat to be properly cooked–isnt it great to be a national security hawk?
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:12 pm 35. Charlie (Colorado):This is just nuts. 1820 EDT and no noon statement.
Someone’s lawyers are involved in this delay, mark my words.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:19 pm 36. mezzrow:BTW, left off the attribution
“One Size Fits All” – Zappa 1975
This is the album you can play with your Mother in the room. Not a naughty word in it – and genius.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:22 pm 37. jr-sr:Drudge:
Statement by the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward:
“We established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate or we would not have put them on television. There was a great deal of coroborating [sic] evidence from people in a position to know. Having said that, given all the questions about them, we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that’s what we are doing.”
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:24 pm 38. PeterUK:If Desparate Dan had tried this on my late mother she would have flayed him alive.That is what he needs,a good Little Old Lady Slapping.CBS can only go one lower than this and that is exhuming poor Colonel Killian,are ther no depths they won’t descend to.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:29 pm 39. Brian:I can just imagine Rather staggering in to work tonight.
[network]
DOORMAN: Good afternoon, Mr. Rather.
DAN RATHER: I must make my witness.
DOORMAN: Sure thing, Mr. Rather.
[/network]
Heh.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:29 pm 40. Charlie (Colorado):Isn’t there an old saying to the effect that we must redouble our efforts now that the objective has been lost?
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:34 pm 41. OldManRick:Jamie,
“I have to quietly endure, giving nothing away, the most ridiculous and offensive statements daily.”
I think we need a new term for you guys. I’ve been silent at work when someone trash talks, too.
I used to think of myself as a “silent W”. But it happens less and less as I find more and more silent W’s.
OldManRick
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:39 pm 42. Judith:Okay, so it’s “powerful and extremely well-financed forces” who are, nevertheless, just a bunch of guys sitting around blogging “in their pajamas”?
Which is it: sinister manipulative evil forces or no-nothings howling at the moon while scratching their nether regions?
Just so we know who the enemy is.
Sep 15, 2004 - 3:56 pm 43. Katherine:RogerA: a national security hawk is the only lifestyle for me. Yum yum.
Regarding keeping my ìindecent conservative (?) opinionsî to myself: if it was not for community such as I met on this blog, I would go insane long time ago. If fact, being in touch with all you fine ladies and gentlemen gave me hope that reason and decency are not dead, that reasonable people can discuss all sorts of issues without hurting one another, that my husband and I are not the only people sharing the unfashionable, politically incorrect classical liberal values.
I believe that at one time M. Simon suggested that after the terrorist threat is past the more traditionally conservative and more traditionally liberal people on this blog would go their separate ways. I donít think so. Once we build respect for one another we will be able to discuss ñ in a civilized, no matter how heated, manner ñ such explosive issues as abortion, gay marriage, healthcare reform or affirmative action. And this things need to be discussed. Only by being open to wide variety of alternative views we can find solutions that work and that are acceptable to most people. I realize that we will not be able to solve everything; some solutions may be simply unacceptable to certain points of view. But we all realize that reasonable people can disagree. And I believe that most decent people ñ yes, we are all decent people, Dan Rather – want only life, liberty and happiness, for all of us.
PS. It is a good thing that Al Gore invented that Internet!
Sep 15, 2004 - 4:49 pm 44. Roberts:Well financed? It is truly amazing how deluded Dan Rather is and what an astonishing incompetent liar he is.
Sep 15, 2004 - 5:01 pm 45. MrSpkr:Hey! That means I’m rich, too!
w00t for me!
In all seriousness, though, I think this reveals the increasing desperation of the ideological Left. Think about it. The traditional bastions of Leftist power in the modern era — the University, the Legislature, and the Media — are all crumbling, slowly but surely. The youngest generation, while somewhat liberal on certain social issues, and certainly on sexual mores, is largely conservative politically. The federal legislature, and in particular the U.S. House, has shifted to Republican and, while still left of where I would prefer them to be, is simply not as liberal as in the past. Now, the media, a trusted friend of the Left for years, has been revealed to be the sham conservatives have always said it was.
Difficult times for liberals, indeed.
Sep 15, 2004 - 5:49 pm