Thanks a bunch Dan Rather and you idiot producers at CBS. In your haste to break an irrelevant story you have given the right wing freepers 5 weeks worth of material to kick, scream and yell about. RatherGate is just the most glaring example of a disease that is overtaking the media today. It's a virus where major media outlets continually avoid important issues in favor of distractions that are fueled by speculation and opinion.
I am more enraged that CBS News even pursued such an extraneous story in the first place. Who cares what George W. Bush did or did not do 30 years ago? We already knew that his service was lackluster and uneventful. Say, for the sake of argument, that the memos were completely legitimate. Would that really do anything for anybody?
As a result of journalistic incompetence, CBS has thrown the Republican Party a giant softball right over the plate which can be crushed in several different ways. It provides a brand new distraction that can be beaten to death on conservative dominated talk radio, cable news shows and editorials across the country. Let's face it, if this presidential campaign was fought on non-social issues George W. Bush would be in trouble.
RatherGate opens the opportunity for the right to paint themselves as victims of a "liberal media bias." As opinion television spawns, there is no liberal media or conservative media, just a bunch of unsubstantiated pundits yelling at each other. This "scandal" also now gives the president essentially a free pass leading up to the election. How many journalists are going to dig deep on Bush after seeing the complete annihilation of Dan Rather?
The real loser in all of this is the American electorate. Instead of hearing about the critical issues leading up to an important election, we'll continue to be bombarded with what two candidates did 30 years ago.
