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September 29, 2004

Dan Ra^ther Now Using Fake Emails For News Peg

It's unbelievable, but it's true. Even as Dan Rather is being investigated for peddling transparently-sham forged documents, CBS News airs a story using already-debunked emails as the peg upon which to hang its draft-scare story.

RatherBiased has the full story. I'll just tease it.

Rather introduces a story "reported" by Richard Schlesinger. The "report" features video footage of these emails:

which can be read in their entirety here, and which have been thoroughly debunked as the typical dishonest wives'-tale chain letter at FactCheck.org.

Contrary to the claims in the email -- promoted by CBS News -- that the Selective Service is upping its budget in anticipation for a draft, the budget is actually flat:

The Selective Service Budget has not been increased. The scare story also gets it wrong when it claims the budget for the Selective Service is being increased by $28 million in 2004. In fact, the Selective Service System's budget is flat. Its total operating budget was $26 million in fiscal year 2003 (which ended last Sept. 30), and is $26 million for fiscal 2004 as well. Furthermore, the President is asking for $26 million again for fiscal year 2005, and the Office of Management and Budget actually projects that the agency will shrink in size from 161 employees to 156 next year. That's hardly gearing up for a draft.

Furthermore, it is not the Bush Administration, nor anyone actually interested in restoring a draft who has introduced the two "draft bills" in Congress. Democrats "pushing" bills to reinstate a draft, chiefly as a political stunt. Even the Democrats -- or especially the Democrats -- don't want a draft; they are "introducing" bills to reinstate the draft to call attention to whatever the hell it is that animates them these days.

The report publishes images of these emails as if they are genuine and their contents can be relied upon. Nowhere in the report does it state that the basic facts "reported" by the emails is in fact completely wrong. It features Bush and Kerry denying any interest in the draft, but then returns to a supposedly "Republican woman" -- aren't they all? -- being unconvinced.

After all-- she's got her emails. Emails that CBS News just publically endorsed.

Is this just another case of "aggressive journalism," or "journalism happening," as liberal media apologist Richard Cohen claims?

posted by Ace at 04:39 AM

Comments

I recall Piere Sallinger (sp?), JFK's press sec., buying into an internet hoax regarding the downing of TWA flight 800 many years ago. I believe he was the first high profile person caught out.

Now we have Dan "debunked again" Rather being tripped up by previously discredited emails in yet another fine example of CBS' vaunted research abilities coming up short.

A bit of introspection is called for by Dan-o.

Posted by: Pigilito on September 29, 2004 06:25 AM

This is journalism at its worst. Failure to rely on primary source documentation for a story is tantamount to National Enquirer standard story writing. Schlesinger and Rather are guilty of scare tactics in the first degree. Punishment is working on next year's psychic predictions for the World Weekly News!

Posted by: Woody on September 29, 2004 06:35 AM

I fired off an email to my local affiliate again. The station manager has been a good guy about the whole thing, but I just had to tell him that I can't watch anything on CBS while they run this tabloid crap. I think it's time to get that going again.

Posted by: Brett on September 29, 2004 07:55 AM

Someone needs to tip off Gunga Dan that the Post Office is planning to start taxing e-mails at 5 cents a pop. There's a bill (602P) sponsored by Rep. Tony Schnell that would authorize this. Dan needs to set up a face-to-face interview with Mr. Schnell. That would be a scoop that would solve all his problems.

Posted by: Simon Oliver Lockwood on September 29, 2004 08:37 AM

You need your patented - "just when you think it can't get worse..."

They didn't really do this did they?

It must a hoax. CBS can't be THAT clueless can they?

I'm just shaking my head. If scrappleface had posted this item, I'd spike it. Needs to has a modicum of plausibilty to be funny.

Posted by: Phil on September 29, 2004 09:54 AM

Beverly Cocco a Republican?

Or, a contact for a chapter of an advocacy group called People Against the Draft?

http://www.nodraft.info/contact.html

Philadelphia Lancaster/Bucks County affiliate: Parents Against the Draft Contact Beverly Cocco, babby61754@comcast.net

Posted by: conelrad on September 29, 2004 10:16 AM

CBS really did this. I had the crazy impulse to record CBS Evening News last night (partially to see if any anti-Rather ads ran during breaks), and I was completely blown away. CBS can argue that they didn't know better with Memogate, but there's simply no way to do this report "accidentally." Not only is this a textbook example of biased reporting, but it's practically an insult to journalism itself. Make sure everyone you know hears about this, no matter what their politics. CBS must think we're all vegetables. This is not aggressive journalism; instead, it's regressive journalism.

Posted by: UnknownBlogger on September 29, 2004 10:49 AM

The fact that CBS based an evening-news story on a "hoax email" is significant far beyond the obvious indicator of gross bias.

Specifically, it shows that the network--far from learning the obvious lesson from Rathergate--has made the *opposite* decision: they feel they can continue running stories that are grossly biased, if not downright deceitful.

Anyone who felt that CBS might change after the roasting the network got for using the forged memos should find their "draft" story very sobering.

Posted by: sf on September 29, 2004 10:54 AM

Ace--

If you need a nice, handy fact-based argument why a draft is not only not going to happen, but is also unnecessary, see my posting from a few weeks back:

http://garfieldridge.blogspot.com/2004/09/edwards-no-military-draft-if-dems-win.html

Bottom line: if we need more troops, we'll just spend more money to recruit more troops.

The volunteer military before 1991 was significantly larger than it is today; there's no logical reason why we can't recruit more troops today (sure, at the micro-level some people wouldn't look twice at enlisting during a wartime situation-- but they're also the same people you wouldn't want to have serve anyways, in either a volunteer or a draft-based military.

A concerted national appeal to patriotism, combined with gobs of cash, will get us a better military than forced conscription would, and do so in the same amount of time.

Cheers,
Dave
Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Dave on September 29, 2004 10:57 AM

I refuse to believe that CBS could actually stoop this low. It's time to show them what the Blogosphere does to liars once again!

Posted by: Phange on September 29, 2004 10:59 AM

What's next? An in-depth exposé the cruelty (possibly by known Republicans!) of the "Bonsai Kitten" craze? Or of corruption in African nations related to the multimillion dollar estates left behind by deceased dictators and oil ministers?

"And CBS has learned that e-mail correspondence has been sent from Mr. Claudio Kabila, the second son of the late Laurent Kabila Former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C) whose sudden death occurred in January 2001, to nearly every prominent member of Bush's inner circle!"

Posted by: David C on September 29, 2004 11:00 AM

Nice to see al-jazeerah has picked this up.

Posted by: Mark on September 29, 2004 11:25 AM

CBS, the anti-Snopes

You ain't seen nothing yet: What will happen when CBS, in order to "get the story out", fabricates their own internet hoax? (And will they remember to spoof the return address in the email, or just leave it dan@cbs.com?)

Posted by: Rich on September 29, 2004 11:52 AM

Tonight, on the CBS Evening News, the story the drug companies don't want you to see...

DISC0UNTZ 0N SUPER VIAG@RA! P3NIS ENLARG3MENT PILLZ!

Posted by: Sean M. on September 29, 2004 12:50 PM

Dammit, Sean, warn a guy will ya? I was lucky to not have a beverage in my mouth when I read that!

Posted by: Brian B on September 29, 2004 01:00 PM

Forget about the original email... go about 3 or 4 replies deep, and check out that one guy's ASCII signature with phone number and stuff... it's awesome!

Posted by: Dave on September 29, 2004 01:05 PM

James Woolley of Newshouse News Service already debunked this story a week ago:

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/woolley092704.html

My favorite section is that even the anti-war activists are sick of this crap:

"That e-mail doesn't die. It's got a lot of inaccuracies in it," said Bill Galvin, a counseling coordinator with the Center on Conscience and War, a conscientious objectors organization in Washington. "We're getting so tired of answering questions about the stupid thing."

Posted by: Bill Peschel on September 29, 2004 01:43 PM

At 2:43 EST, access to Ratherbiased is now "Forbidden." Anyone else get this?

Posted by: Terry Notus on September 29, 2004 02:46 PM

Ratherbiased's servers are down, but Rathergate is hosting them until they get back up, so try there for news. I mean, not that you would visit any site but this one. (Ace, please don't tell Mr. Tranh!)

Posted by: Terry Notus on September 29, 2004 03:19 PM

This is worse than the faked memos!

Rathergate is now CBSgate.

Viacom (CBS' parent) CEO Sumner Redstone must move NOW to fire Les Moonves, Andy Heyward, Mary Mapes, Jim Schlessenger, the producers involved in this latest piece, other people implicated in this scandal, and Dan Rather.

Once Mr. Redstone does that, he should resign, followed by the Viacom board of directors submitting their resignations.

This is CBS...the Columbia Bull***t System!

Posted by: Jofus on September 29, 2004 04:30 PM

Why not tell the truth to begin with .
lies always surface, The Lord sees to that.
Thank goodness we have Him on our side against Liars like CBS and others.

Posted by: Lorene Maxwell on October 2, 2004 08:58 AM

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After threatening that the "clock is ticking" for renewed strikes on Iran, Trump once again calls them off to give negotiating a chance.
I can't even cover this any more. It's embarrassing. It's like covering the endless negotiations over DHS funding. Trump is going to drag this out through the midterms and then lose them.
Note to the president: At some point, allowing the Regime to remain in power without actually forcing them to give up nukes is just a back-door, unacknowledged renewal of the Obama policy.
Well, I guess we just have to wait for their economy to collapse and their troops to desert.

TJM definitively ranks the films of David Lean

Mayor Karen is so stung by fan-made AI ads that she's resorting to the shitlibs' go-to demand for an end to criticism -- these ads are "violent" and "hateful" and making me feel unsafe because one video showed AI cartoons throwing tomatoes at me and the tomatoes looked like blood when they squished
This was her actual complaint. The mushed-up tomato looked like blood so it's a death threat and these violent attacks on me must stop. What is dis bitch, CNN?

Podcast: Sefton and CBD are joined by Jeff Carter, candidate for NV treasurer, and seasoned finance professional, for a discussion of the issues facing Nevadans, and the larger financial challenges in America.

TJM explores the movies of David Lean, director of Lawrence of Arabia

Few people remember that Norm MacDonald began his career as a ventriloquist
MacDonald's old partner Adam Egot revealed that MacDonald repurposed a bit with one of his ventriloquist dolls -- that he was a "bad guy" who "didn't believe the Holocaust happened" -- for the Norm MacDonald show, in which he claimed Egot didn't believe in the Holocaust.

Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove

Chris
@chriswithans

"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click That Sums Up the Democrat Communist Party Today
Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining

TJM wonders about world building in stories, mostly The Hunger Games

"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"

Dan Rather Now Using Fake Emails For News Peg

Dan Ra^ther Now Using Fake Emails For News Peg