… I am going to boycott CBS News, because I almost never watch it anyway. I used to enjoy “60 Minutes” but it’s getting more than a little long in the tooth. And in the case of Andy Rooney, my doctor told me that too much Ambien was dangerous.
But if Rather and his colleagues don’t apologize fully and soon, I imagine a mass movement to boycott CBS News (not their sponsors – it’s not their fault) for promulgating forgeries during a presidential campaign would be forthcoming. Indeed, I imagine it’s beginning to happen already. Even The New York Times is only offering tepid support. Pretty soon all they’ll have left is Tom Harkin.
Don’t forget the Globe. They’re turning out to be just as bad.
The Pentagon just confirmed The documents are forgeries Will post a link as soon as I can find details online…
dan rather and paul begala: twins. they use television for propaganda, not news. they share with fundamentalists the belief that they don’t have to tell the truth to the great unwashed–they lie for a “good” cause, their own, and truth has no place in their performance. no facts, m’am, just spin.
btw, thank you roger for your timely and impassioned work on the documents topic. i’ve learned a great deal and enjoyed both your postings and your marvelous comments section. keep up the good work.
The next time someone tells us we’re not fair and balanced…
Before we were married in 1979, my (ex) wife liked to watch 60 Minutes. When we’d watch the program, I could always tell my wife the point of the story, and the slant the 60 Minutes was going to take on the story before the opening credits at the beginning of the story were finished.
This used to tick my wife off. She said I was cynical. She never commented on the fact that I was always right.
We are anxiously following the story of devilish Dan in Kyoto, rooting the blogosphere on, and we wish to thank you Mr. Simon for your wit and humanity. We have our share of Rathers and Michael Moores in Japan. Not at all an original bunch of slackers, and if not for France and America’s liberal media they would not know what to say or where to begin. They live off of, and since 9.12 have been profiting greatly from, stealing the lines of every Chomsky, Foucault, and Oliphant they can find. On the other hand they are forever opposed by our Simons and Steyns and Wall Street Journals and the like. If Rather is brought down it will provide much fodder for our noble canons here. Do not let up. By the way Fahrenheit 9.11 was just released and is making a ton of money over here.
Richard,
A commenter at Captain’s Quarters is claiming Fox is reporting that the Pentagon has verified that the docs are forged.
I’m watching Fox News at this moment. They just ran down questions about the docs but no mention of the Pentagon. A couple “guests” are on. One is claiming that the fact that the WH is not claiming forgery that the docs must be real. She even threw in a gratuitous “If Bush is such a moral Christian…” dig.
Some woman on the other side said they are clearly forgeries and is now quoting polls.
Its deteriorating into a standard cable “scream fest”. Oh well. That’s why TV news is not particularly worthwhile. Soon we’ll move to All Ivan All the Time.
BTW,
Re: the “Why isn’t the WH attacking the docs if they are forgeries?” question.
I’ve been wondering. The conclusion I’ve come to requires the “poker player” explanation. The WH knows it is holding the winning hand for this particular go ’round the table. If the other players (Kerry and the MSM) want to keep tossing cash in the pot, the WH will gladly take their money.
OK.
We are not being fair to CBS, Rather, Boston Globe, and various pundits (Juan Williams et al)
They need help.
In the post-modern world they live in, they need answers.
We can help.
1) I suggest we all get our IBM Selectric Composers out (start up Word for those of us not in the post-modern world.)
2) Every hair-brained thing in the world needs to be written up. I saw the Elvis, Death in Memphis material around here somewhere. I am pretty sure Bush coordinated with Michael Moore in the production of f9/11. Let us get life’s mysteries all documented.
3) We create a ‘signature’ for each document: Something like:
4) We copy the documents a few times, then fax them, their preferred data gathering technique – after all, we are trying to help.
It is easier than boycotting an organization with which we already do not do business.
Roger,
I agree with what you say except for the part about the CBS sponsors. Without financial repercussions, there is no incentive for CBS to recant. They will lose face if they do. But if they can continue to stonewall until controversy fades away theyíll get increased market share from the ABB crowd. They’ll be able to portray themselves as heroic martyr-journalists, unjustly accused by the VRWC hate machine blah blah blah…
Everyone who is upset by this should contact the CBS sponsors and let them know what you think
Does anyone have a list of sponsors?
Some great links:
http://www.selectric.org/selectric/index.html
http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/the_shape_of_days/2004/09/the_ibm_selectr.html
(I made a donation to this guy; he did a huge amount of work.)
And go vote on CNN on whether Dan Rather & CBS should reveal the source of the documents.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
According to Captain’s Quarters, Fox just repeated for the third time that three Pentagon experts have stated the memos are forgeries. The original report came from Wendel Goler.
Thanks, Catherine, great idea. I tipped shapeofdays. I wish I could help out selectric guy’s bandwidth bill. People keeping that kind of arcane knowledge are going to serve going to serve us well in the future.
As for boycotting CBS news, I hadn’t seen it in so long that I couldn’t tell if Rather always looked as shookup as he did last night or not. I will Thumbs Down the shows in my TiVo, just on principle.
Actually, if you boycott CBS news, I think you will be hurting them financially. In contracts between networks and advertisers, the rates are based on ratings. If the ratings go down significantly, networks often have to give money back, and even if they didn’t have to, it will affect what they’re able to charge in the future.
well of course the pentagon has declared they’re forgeries … they’re nothing but partisan shills for bush!
/sarcasm
as far as boycotts go — i think a general boycott would be a heck of a lot more effective than just boycotting one particular show. hitting the entire organization over the actions of a few is the best way to effect massive change — or at least inflict massive damage.
i mean, that’s what we’re doing to the terrorists — not all of them attacked us, but dubya, by god, is going to smear them all. given the chance.
sorry for the malformed sentence case … can’t reach the shift key. my newborn son’s sleeping on my arms
Dan Rather Lies About Own Military Service ó Weekend Warrior Draft Dodger!
In re boycott: Probably won’t have much impact. CBS audience demographics would probably tend “true believer” at any rate.
It may be more effective to propose headlines for business writers. Getting “Is Viacom’s CBS unit ‘forging’ into dangerous territory?” into the WJS as a headline would have more effect than a boycott. Remember – it’s Viacom that needs to take a hit. A nice 5 point drop in Viacom and CBS will pitch Rather off the roof.
Same with the Kerry campaign – “Has John Kerry ‘forged’ his destiny?” would look very nice in almost any publication.
Maybe Roger could run a ‘best headline’ contest.
Of course, everything written would have to comport with the CBS “Best Journalistic Practice” handbook.
possibly important
David
THAT IS A GREAT THOUGHT!
COMMENTERS: if I’m wrong about this, please post.
Here’s something TIVO owners can do immediately.
Go to your TIVO and give 3 “thumbs down” to CBS Evening News & 60 Minutes II. (60 Minutes II, right?)
If you don’t know how to do it, I can give you directions.
I think this data is collected by the folks at TIVO.
I know for a fact that they had data showing how many times TIVO owners had watched and re-watched Janet Jackson’s nipple (too many to count).
I also know for a fact that TIVO’s plan for making money has been to sell collective data on their viewers to various companies wanting to place products in shows, etc.
So I’m thinking that if large numbers of TIVO owners suddenly gave CBS Evening News & 60 Minutes “3 thumbs down” this would be picked up by the folks at TIVO.
Have I got that wrong?
Easy.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake” – Napoleon
Why should Bush buy chips in this game, when the media are having a fallout amongst themselves and dragging Kerry into it? What benefit could he possibly derive from getting into it?
…still chuckling over the image of Rather stepping on a rake..
If you want to get CBS nervous, bitch to your local CBS affiliate. When affiliates complain, networks listen…
Catherine,
That’s what I think TiVo does, but I can’t find anything that says they collect “thumbs”. They do say they collect veiwing data, and I doubt they would throw out data like this. Anyway, “don’t cost nothin”.
And how about next week’s topic: a hoax!
http://www.david.net/tivo.jpg
Knuck and Occam: you guys are spot on–The White House hasnt got to do anything–CBS, the democratic machine, and the MSM are self destructing–Plus: it must be driving Terry McAuliffe crazy! Samuel in a post another thread had an excellent assessment of the President’s personality that helps explain why he isnt commenting. Compare the posturing of a narcissist like Kerry when the swift boat stuff came out with that of President Bush–when you are secure in the truth, you have nothing to fear. The reactions of the two candidates to this sort of news says tons about their fitness for office.
Aparrently, Walter V. Robinson, Boston Globe editor who wrote the September 8th TANG story, has had some former run ins with the law, regarding libel/defamation. From SayAnythingBlog:
Let me try that again:
Okay, I have no idea how to make a link show up.
The article is hteeteepee wwwdotsayanthingblogdotcom
Sorry.
On another note, I wouldn’t want to be the guy who has the originals, or the guy who even knows who has the originals of the memos. I wouldn’t mind being the beneficary of an insurance policy, however.
Good info Godzilla. Here’s a link on linking.
Here’s the link regarding the Boston Globe’s editor, Walter V. Robinson, and his previous conviction of libel/defamation.
The Link
“…a mass movement to boycott CBS News (not their sponsors – it’s not their fault)…”
God knows I love ya Roger, but WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
You have to go after the sponsors. It is the ONLY way you get the attention of corporate and getting that attention is the ONLY way you get real results.
To paraphrase Deep Throat, “Go for the money.”
A boycott of CBS News sponsors would definitely hurt. Email the sponsors with your demand that they stop sponsoring CBS News programming because of their long term liberal bias. Cite this as the fourth biased hit piece this year vs none against Kerry.
When the sponsors start losing business, they’ll know why and at least demand that CBS be more balanced.
I have a boycott list of the 60 Minutes II Rather-Barnes piece (via SwiftVet site). Also a link to another site that is boycotting 60 Minutes for a different piece they did.
Punishing the sponsors is the only way to punish CBS – they’re rating won’t plummet if all the wingnuts flock there to show their support.
I found a list of sponsors here. (just scroll down the comments section)
This is fun. I’m not a religious person, but if Rather goes down in a Media Feeding FrenzyTM then I’ll say maybe there is karma after all.
“Remember – it’s Viacom that needs to take a hit. A nice 5 point drop in Viacom and CBS will pitch Rather off the roof.”
FWIW I sent my note of intent to no longer peruse any VIACOM owned venue to:
nonmanagementdirectors@viacom.com
OK Folks,
I still say hitting Viacom is the way to go but Powerline is picking up the boycott idea and one of their readers mentions Dennis’ idea concerning affiliate. Here is a list of CBS affiliates. DO NOT CLICK the highlighted cities – unless you want some useless info. Copy the call letters into google and the stations website will pop right up. There will be a CONTACT US button somewhere on the homepage (at least there was on the five I tried). Drop them a note indicating your resolve to not watch them anymore and tell them you’re emailing all your friends to urge them to not do the same.
If Glen, Hugh and a few others take up the idea it may have an impact.
Be sure to be polite and specific about Dan Rather being a lying scumbag who lives in John Kerry’s pocket.
Here’s two 60 Minutes advertiser lists -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1211041/posts ^
http://www.nche.com/cbs-sponsors.html
——————————————
I’ll post the SwiftVets’ 60 Minute II list if I can find it.
Catherine
Yes, TIVO collects the data.
By the way, did you know it runs Linux?