http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-wasserstein19sep19,1,1592841.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinionsBloggers' 'Moment' Doesn't Make for a Revolution
It's an Internet win, but far from traditional journalism's death knell.
By Ben Wasserstein
Ben Wasserstein is a writer in New York.
September 19, 2004
NEW YORK — Early morning Sept. 11, a poster on the conservative Free Republic website exulted, "
ll of us can say we were there when a few people from Free Republic kicked CBS and Kerry ass."
The John Kerry part may or may not come to pass, but there is little doubt that a few people using their computers certainly gave CBS News and anchor Dan Rather a beating. Right-wing blogs — "blog" is short for web log — and forums such as Power Line, Little Green Footballs and Free Republic were the first to question the authenticity of four memos released by CBS News, purportedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who supervised George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard unit in the early 1970s. The memos were part of a "60 Minutes" story reported by Rather, questioning President Bush's fulfillment of his Guard service. The buzz created by the blogs became deafening and the story moved like lightning onto the Drudge Report, and from there to talk radio, cable news and newspapers' front pages — and it's not over yet.
Bloggers cheered that the new-media David had slain the old-media Goliath
snip-
For journalists, blogs have been most valuable as instant and frequently excellent sources of commentary and as repositories of fresh perspectives, such as that of celebrated Baghdad-based Iraq war blogger "Salam Pax," who has gone on to write a column for England's Guardian newspaper. Blogs have not been a place to go for original reporting or breaking news. And "Rathergate," as some have taken to calling this contretemps, does not change that.
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