Saturday, September 11, 2004
The End of the Old Media; the triumph of the web
In the beginning there were ABC, NBC, CBS the New York Times and the Washington Post. They set the agenda, the terms of the debate and, ultimately, they and they alone determined what was truth and what was fiction, what was newsworthy and what was rumor. The world changed on September 9, 2004. On that day, CBS’s leading news program, 60 Minutes, aired a story based on “newly discovered memos” which supported claims that George W. Bush’s performance in the Texas Air National Guard had been less than stellar. There was only one problem. The documents were forged.
It was truly a wonder to behold. Within minutes of release of the documents on the internet, average people, not trained investigative journalists, began to call the documents into serious question. Starting with a posting on Freerepublic.com the analysis was soon picked up by bloggers like powerline.com and Littlegreenfootballs.com. The questions began grow and the analysis became more refined. Experts in military jargon and style of the time questioned the language; many people questioned the obvious “word processed” look of the documents. Within hours it was clear to anyone reading the analysis that 60 minutes had bought into a forgery, lock stock and barrel.
What was most exciting to me was that you could actually watch it happen in real time. A post by one blogger would trigger further analysis by another. Meanwhile, yet another “average Joe” was calling a local expert on circa 1970’s typewriters. Forensic document analysts were contacted and opined that the memos looked forged. By the end of the following day, even some of the major networks were reporting on the forgeries. CBS’s 60 minutes was toast. With all of its highly-paid, trained staff and millions of dollars in resources, CBS had been undone by a "bunch of guys sitting a home in their pajamas." The old media was dead whether they knew it or not. Henceforth, it would be the millions of guys in their pajamas who would be the final judges of truth and fiction.
True, like any seismic event of this magnitude, the event had been presaged by numerous tremors. Those who write the final obituary of the old media may well point back to the rise of Rush Limbaugh and talk radio as the beginning, others may point to the Drudge Report’s breaking of the Monica Lewinski story as the first warning sign. The reality is, these were all warning signs, but it all began much, much earlier. The triumph of the web we all saw on 9/9/04 marked the day that the Silent Majority was finally able to be kept silent no longer. It marked the day that the Old Media lost its power to keep us marginalized and quiet.
And how fitting it is that the ultimate triumph of the Silent Majority would be over forged memos allegedly written in the 1970’s brought forth as part of a losing campaign by a man who’s claim to fame are that he is a Vietnam War Hero even though he was best known as a Vietnam War Protester, John F. Kerry. For those who don’t remember, the term the Silent Majority was coined by Richard Nixon and used most famously in a speech he delivered on November 3, 1969 at the very peak of the anti-war demonstrations. The subject of the speech was, in fact the Vietnam War. A link to the speech can be found here
In that speech, Nixon laid out the status of the war, the status of peace negotiations and his plan for ending the war. In many ways the speech has eerie resonance to the current battle front of the war on terror, Iraq. It is clear to me that President Bush and his team have learned the lessons of Vietnam and are prepared not to repeat them.
It is equally clear that Kerry and his fellow travelers believe that since they were successful in their efforts to defeat the U.S. in Vietnam, the same approach will work a second again. There is a major difference today. The Silent Majority is silent no longer. This war, like that one, will be won by guys in pajamas only this time, we're the ones in our pajamas and, most importantly, we all remember what happened exactly three years ago today.
Chris Rebillot
September 11, 2004
It was truly a wonder to behold. Within minutes of release of the documents on the internet, average people, not trained investigative journalists, began to call the documents into serious question. Starting with a posting on Freerepublic.com the analysis was soon picked up by bloggers like powerline.com and Littlegreenfootballs.com. The questions began grow and the analysis became more refined. Experts in military jargon and style of the time questioned the language; many people questioned the obvious “word processed” look of the documents. Within hours it was clear to anyone reading the analysis that 60 minutes had bought into a forgery, lock stock and barrel.
What was most exciting to me was that you could actually watch it happen in real time. A post by one blogger would trigger further analysis by another. Meanwhile, yet another “average Joe” was calling a local expert on circa 1970’s typewriters. Forensic document analysts were contacted and opined that the memos looked forged. By the end of the following day, even some of the major networks were reporting on the forgeries. CBS’s 60 minutes was toast. With all of its highly-paid, trained staff and millions of dollars in resources, CBS had been undone by a "bunch of guys sitting a home in their pajamas." The old media was dead whether they knew it or not. Henceforth, it would be the millions of guys in their pajamas who would be the final judges of truth and fiction.
True, like any seismic event of this magnitude, the event had been presaged by numerous tremors. Those who write the final obituary of the old media may well point back to the rise of Rush Limbaugh and talk radio as the beginning, others may point to the Drudge Report’s breaking of the Monica Lewinski story as the first warning sign. The reality is, these were all warning signs, but it all began much, much earlier. The triumph of the web we all saw on 9/9/04 marked the day that the Silent Majority was finally able to be kept silent no longer. It marked the day that the Old Media lost its power to keep us marginalized and quiet.
And how fitting it is that the ultimate triumph of the Silent Majority would be over forged memos allegedly written in the 1970’s brought forth as part of a losing campaign by a man who’s claim to fame are that he is a Vietnam War Hero even though he was best known as a Vietnam War Protester, John F. Kerry. For those who don’t remember, the term the Silent Majority was coined by Richard Nixon and used most famously in a speech he delivered on November 3, 1969 at the very peak of the anti-war demonstrations. The subject of the speech was, in fact the Vietnam War. A link to the speech can be found here
In that speech, Nixon laid out the status of the war, the status of peace negotiations and his plan for ending the war. In many ways the speech has eerie resonance to the current battle front of the war on terror, Iraq. It is clear to me that President Bush and his team have learned the lessons of Vietnam and are prepared not to repeat them.
It is equally clear that Kerry and his fellow travelers believe that since they were successful in their efforts to defeat the U.S. in Vietnam, the same approach will work a second again. There is a major difference today. The Silent Majority is silent no longer. This war, like that one, will be won by guys in pajamas only this time, we're the ones in our pajamas and, most importantly, we all remember what happened exactly three years ago today.
Chris Rebillot
September 11, 2004
