We bloggers have been dismissed by another media mogul as guys sitting in our living rooms in our pajamas.
True to form, bloggers have unrepentently adopted the pajama theme and incorporated mention of our new uniform in post after post. Rathergate has even inspired new products and has inspired a major blogger, Frank J., to become a cartoonist.
Yep! Us pajama-clad bloggers have jammed a thousand wedges into a mighty media machine again and this time we may have damaged it beyond repair. CBS will have a really hard time putting Rathergate behind them.
A recent Wall Street Journal article on the internet reads:
CBS stonewalls as “guys in pajamas” uncover a fraud.
A watershed media moment occurred Friday on Fox News Channel, when Jonathan Klein, a former executive vice president of CBS News who oversaw “60 Minutes,” debated Stephen Hayes, a writer for The Weekly Standard, on the documents CBS used to raise questions about George W. Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service.
Mr. Klein dismissed the bloggers who are raising questions about the authenticity of the memos: “You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of check and balances [at ’60 Minutes’] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”
Heh! Hundreds of pajama-clad bloggers have shown CBS fact-checking to be an empty exercise in self-deception. Dan Rather seems to be the only person insisting on the authenticity of the forged documents, and there is plenty of speculation as to why he is willing to sacrifice his career so foolishly.
For those who have been unconscious or without power for the last week, here is a succinct summary of the Rathergate debacle. Here is another chronology from Rathergate.com.
And, just to keep the record straight, someone has already laid claim to pajamasphere. We, of the pajamarati, respect that claim while adopting the term generally. In the matter of blogging slang, we practice open-source branding.
UPDATE: We would also like to point out to any media dinosaurs that get this far that bloggers consist of guys AND gals sitting at their keyboards. If they don’t believe that female bloggers can be more seriously ferocious than male bloggers, they haven’t encountered Denita, Linda, Da Goddess,
or TallGlassof Milk.
Stay tuned for more news from your blogging friends, sometimes regarded by Old Media as “pirahnas in pajamas”.
UPDATE: The ante is being raised, even as we sip our morning coffee. There is increasing pressure being brought to bear for CBS to clean house and fire Rather.
Beldar, a self-professed crusty, long-winded trial lawyer says Dan Rather was complicit in defrauding the American public in an attempt to defeat a sitting President. Rather must be fired now. Congress should subpoena CBS News’ lawyers and all documentation of their advice.
It is a little late to hunker down, boys. It’s judgement time.
The Commissar has posted a picture which puts Rathergate into correct historical perspective.
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