Ok, so CBS and Dan Rather aired those documents that bloggers the world over proved were false simply by comparing them to MS Word formatted copies thereby showing that these purportedly old documents matched the modern format, which didn’t exist on old typewriters back then. That’s ok.
Bush and friends were scared though, and they didn’t come forth with any light-shedding statements about this shady period in Dubbya’s service past anyway, but that’s ok too.
The most important reason why CBS didn’t screw up by airing this story, in my opinion, is that they were able to steal the light from the republican-made sideshow centering around Kerry’s Vietnam service.
For the past week or so, everyone’s been up in a tizzy about what the documents mean, where they came from, are they real? are they fake?, and in the world of popular opinion and media focus, a week is like a lifetime.
As we get closer to November, every day counts in the campaigns of both parties. As I’ve learned from study of campaigns past, those behind the scenes are constantly trying to either shine or steal the spotlight from the other, to define the topic and the tone of the discourse. And, like what they tell you on the first day of debate class, usually the person controlling the argument ends up winning.
It is my opinion that CBS may have done this on purpose, to do just that, take the spotlight from the Republicans for a little bit. So, before you go running around talking about how silly CBS is, think about this for a second. They’ve been around for a long, long time. They know what they’re doing.
I’m sure there’ll be another week of “I told you so” and hah!”s coming from all around, and that’s great, it’s perfect. Good job CBS. You did well.
Post a Comment