curveball, today is your lucky day! Here is an open offer to “anyone who can reasonably recreate the CBS memos on equipment available in early 1972.”
Glenn Reynolds, as always, is on top of things.
September 10, 2004
The Greens are Calling!
I must clear my mind. Overwhelmed. Sick of politics. NEED GOLF!
With all I’ve dealt with recently, I’ve missed out on imparting golf knowledge on my readers. Especially a milestone I reached last weekend. On my old home course, there are two holes I had never birdied–a 4-par and a 3-par. The 4-par is the #1 handicap hole with a tight green that is hard to hold. The hole must be in the right place to allow any chance for a putt to make birdie. Normally it requires a bounce-up approach. But I managed to knock in a birdie there several weeks ago, which left only #13, a 3-par.
This hole is a relatively long 3-par, about 165-180 yards (depending on tee placement), and has a large green. Most days, the wind is right in your face, which adds three and sometimes four clubs to the shot. Anything off-line is blown ever further off-line. A low wind-cheater landing short to run the ball up doesn’t work because the front of the green has St Augustine grass which grabs the ball and stops it. Many times I’ve managed to get within 10 feet of the hole, but missed the putt. Last Sunday, I had a 25-footer, and rolled it in. I have now birdied every hole on the course.
This weekend I have a tournament at my new course. I have a clean slate there, no birdies in the two rounds I’ve played. The countdown begins.
Bogey and I had a phone discussion about Presidential golfers earlier this week.
Several years ago someone asked Rush Limbaugh if he would like to play golf with Bill Clinton. He quickly answered, “Yes. You learn a lot about someone playing golf with them.” Golf has often been a testing ground for character.
Just the other day I saw a program on Discovery Times Channel called “First Off the Tee” about golfing Presidents. It was apparently based on the book by Don Van Natta Jr. One of the issues he addressed was character.
Guess who makes it into the
On Air Again
Jim called me last night all excited about the revelations regarding the fake (I think I’ll consider it so, now) document used in 60 Minutes. “You’ve got to come on in the morning and talk about this.” How can you decline something like that? So, this morning I stumbled and mumbled my way through the broadcast. Jim was still all worked up, and we both had difficulty staying on target. Consensus is that Dan Rather and his producers who put this document out as legitimate need to be very worried about their future.
He asked how I thought it would affect CBS’s credibility. It won’t. As with everything else in this current cultural divide, you either believe everything they say or nothing. Count me with the latter.
He did take issue with my contention that a broadcast license was a public trust. I understand his perspective as a radio man trying to make a profit. Business means you stay in business. Agree. But any time the government bequeaths a license, they are saying that you meet the necessary professional requirements such that the public can trust your expertise. Lawyers, doctors, engineers, and many other fields require a license to work in the public interest. I see no reason why broadcast media shouldn’t be compared in this way.
Like I said, Jim disagrees, but wouldn’t life be dull if we all agreed on everything?
***UPDATE***
And Wretchard has impeccable analysis:
The traditional news model is collapsing.
And now a Kerry document has appeared.
Scott Ott
ScrappleFace has the straight scoop on this whole TANG memo story.
***UPDATE***
And Liberal Larry fills in the blanks.
Comments Off on Scott Ott
September 9, 2004
Consequences
The question now becomes one of consequences for CBS if the documents are shown to be fake.
First of all, this is a violation of Federal Election Commission rules and Federal law. The lightest penalty would be requiring them to provide equal time to the Bush campaign. There must be much more. Interference in a campaign by a news organization, professing to offer fact, cannot be allowed to slide by the way Sandy Berger has. The Federal Communications Commission should consider revoking CBS’s license, forcing them to reapply. I just sent the FCC Chairman this email:
Sir,
I believe an investigation is in order regarding the possible fake documents used by the CBS News program, “60 Minutes”, in attempting to defame the President of the United States, and acting as a surrogate for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in clear violation of campaign finance laws.
This is no simple faux pas, excuse my French. The FCC license is considered a public trust.
Watergate
Remember how Nixon was brought down by our heroic media, Woodward and Bernstein? We now have a new Watergate–CBS News may have promoted a forged document to prove Dubya had, shall we say, problems during his tenure in the Texas Air National Guard.
I won’t go into too many details here, but I felt the need to make that comparison. I’ve felt MSM