DanRather Being Held to a Different Standard

As I read this column by David S Broder today, I was reminded of the right-wing's determination to (and stated outright by some of them) end 60 Minutes, Dan Rather, and the entire "trashy leftwing media".

I'm very bothered if there was a forgery. But PC World among other sources proved that the documents may not have been a forgery since the IBM Selectric of that period could produce that font AND that if the documents were provided as a fax or were scanned into a computer, the font would adjust and you may be no longer able to tell whether they were typewriter or PC printer produced.

Yet I'm even more bothered by the fact that the media allowed itself to buy the font story and run with it, without doing much checking into things. Later, it turned out that people who worked with Killian said the documents - real or fake - reflect what Killian thought of Bush.

I'm also bothered by the fact that Dan Rather is being held to one standard, while the right-wing media (which purports to be the fair and balanced alternative - ha!) calling for his removal has a completely different standard. No journalism for Fox - only what's good for Bush because it's good for Murdoch and O'Reilly. They lie and distort and it becomes truth to some.

And I'm even more bothered that no one sees the irony, the pathology in having a man like Bush take our men and women into constant war, war that doesn't seem to be ending terrorism but is completely enriching Halliburton et al (=Bush-Cheney's corporate sponsors), or that the media is not spending more time on what seems very clearly a) a back door draft b) plans for a more direct draft immediately after Bush-Cheney re-assume the throne and c) the lies with which we keep going to war.