Dan Rather's situation regarding the forged National Guard documents reminds me of some of those Animal Planet documentaries that I've seen where the old, sick wildebeast has been dragged down by the hyenas and is watching with a strange, shock-induced detachment as the predators begin to devour him. His bleats (not you, James) go ignored by the rest of the herd which is just happy to be able to saunter away unmolested. In the starring role as the wildebeast - Dapper Dan. Playing the hyenas - the new media.
Dan's no victim in all of this and the new media certainly aren't the bad guys. They're performing a much needed task of weeding out the weakest, sickest members of the mainstream media herd. Dan's fervor in trying taking a chunk out of President Bush's poll numbers apparently caused him to forsake the journalistic ethics and rigorous fact checking that's supposed to be the hallmark of a "real" journalist. Courage, Dan. It'll all be over very soon.
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