I am fascinated by what this signifies for the further evolution of the blogosphere.

Consider: if such documents had surfaced even as recently as the 2000 campaign, their analysis and refutation would have most likely taken days, possibly longer, depending on when copies of the documents were made available. Talk radio would have been the main mechanism for spreading the information. If the documents had surfaced in 1996, the refutation would have taken weeks or possibly not happened at all. In 1996, it might have been sufficient for the Boston Globe to claim that “an expert” had evaluated the documents and concluded that they were genuine. The source documents might never have seen the light of day.

Contrast that to what has happened today. The pdf files for the alleged Nation Guard memos were linked and circulated via the internet. They were viewed within hours by literally thousands of individuals with direct experience relevant to assessing their validity. This included experts in typesetting, forgeries, the National Guard, or any number of other aspects germane to the controversy. (I’m not one of those experts, but some of the points they raise, like the suprascript “th”, seem pretty convincing). Depending on what the major media do tonight, it is possible that the story will be laid to rest in less than 24 hours. Incredible.

This story, even more than the Swift Vets story, illustrates the evolution in the internet as an informational medium. When so many are linked so easily, the internet really approaches a meta-consciousness. The “blogosphere” collectively is many orders of magnitude smarter than a single individual. When historians view this era, I think they might view the 2004 elections as the Battle of Midway for information dissemination. It will mark not so much the end of the traditional media, but the point at which the tide turned.

I was just about to post something along those lines.

Ten years ago a friend of mine suggested that the next major war would not be a shooting war (wrong) but a war of information. As we've all witnessed over the past few months, the daily errors within the MSM cannot be explained away as honest mistakes. They are obviously intentional distortions of the truth, intentionally created to support "their side". Often I have wondered how I/we can get in the fight. Well, it seems like we are already in it, and we're doing a hell of a good job.

Also check out

INDC

with commentary by an expert.

OK, didn't work to put in a link. Maybe this did.

http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/000838.php

Wow. Thanks so much, Phil.

I am so impressed by Bill From INDC that I'm not even envious of him, nor of the straight-media job he's about to get.

The lesson here is that if you are going to do a forgery, don't cut corners. Get period equipment, use period techniques. I mean, you'd think with all the money George Soros is throwing at them, how hard would it be to scrounge up a manual typewriter and actually type this out?

Re: Rauol Ortega

Not unless the forgery was done as a joke by RNC, knowing that CBS will eat it up, no questions ask.

But that's just Democrats Underground Group Think speaking.