[Speed Gibson,
Tuesday September 14, 2004 at 10:23am]
Double Standard
Rush Limbaugh posed this at the end of Monday's show. "What if I attempted to say that I had come up with some documents that prove John Kerry did 'X', and my documents were forgeries? What do you think CBS would be doing to me today? What do you think the mainstream press would be doing to me today?" The answer is obvious.
Better still, what if had been Fox News? You wouldn't have been able to lift the Sunday StarTribune due to the extensive coverage it would have drawn. Judy Woodruff would have been caught smiling on CNN for the first time since Election Day 2000.
But back to this universe, where CBS was at fault. There's finally general acceptance in the MSM that the documents are fraudulent, but so far, relatively little concern or outrage, and even less curiosity as to where they came from. Why? Again, the answer is obvious. The MSM leans to the left, though this incident suggests the degree of tilt may be more than most think. Even at full volume, there simply aren't enough Republican-leaning media outlets to make very much noise.
Look at how the Democrat-leaning media jumped on President Bush's remark on The Today Show that we couldn't win the war on terror. Matt Lauer and company heard what they wanted to hear, ignoring dozens of prior Bush speeches that make Bush's meaning clear. Yes, he could have said it better, and he did the next day. But Bush's view and intent were never in doubt.
Remember when President Clinton told an audience that he agreed that he had raised their taxes to much? No coverage except for one lone reporter who managed, with Rush Limbaugh's help to embarrass the other media present. To their credit, incidentally, they all apologized for missing it.
So far, no one's apologizing here. Personally, I think this was to be Dan Rather's exit strategy, one last big story before his retirement. He had what the wanted, and assumed the prevailing double standard would protect him once again from cross-examination, and in a way he was right, in terms of the MSM.
But instead, Mr. Rather himself is the story, undone not by Limbaugh, not by Fox News, but by the littlest things, typewriter repairmen and Internet geeks, that God in His wisdom has put upon the Earth.
Better still, what if had been Fox News? You wouldn't have been able to lift the Sunday StarTribune due to the extensive coverage it would have drawn. Judy Woodruff would have been caught smiling on CNN for the first time since Election Day 2000.
But back to this universe, where CBS was at fault. There's finally general acceptance in the MSM that the documents are fraudulent, but so far, relatively little concern or outrage, and even less curiosity as to where they came from. Why? Again, the answer is obvious. The MSM leans to the left, though this incident suggests the degree of tilt may be more than most think. Even at full volume, there simply aren't enough Republican-leaning media outlets to make very much noise.
Look at how the Democrat-leaning media jumped on President Bush's remark on The Today Show that we couldn't win the war on terror. Matt Lauer and company heard what they wanted to hear, ignoring dozens of prior Bush speeches that make Bush's meaning clear. Yes, he could have said it better, and he did the next day. But Bush's view and intent were never in doubt.
Remember when President Clinton told an audience that he agreed that he had raised their taxes to much? No coverage except for one lone reporter who managed, with Rush Limbaugh's help to embarrass the other media present. To their credit, incidentally, they all apologized for missing it.
So far, no one's apologizing here. Personally, I think this was to be Dan Rather's exit strategy, one last big story before his retirement. He had what the wanted, and assumed the prevailing double standard would protect him once again from cross-examination, and in a way he was right, in terms of the MSM.
But instead, Mr. Rather himself is the story, undone not by Limbaugh, not by Fox News, but by the littlest things, typewriter repairmen and Internet geeks, that God in His wisdom has put upon the Earth.