Oink update
: After the post below on the political piggies wallowing in mud, I got lots of comments and email continuing the slinging and also going on about the alleged forgery of the Bush documents used on 60 minutes. Two points:
First, yes, CBS did quote and link to all the questions prominantly on the CBSNews homepage. They say they’re still standing by the story. I have no way to know who’s right, who’s innocent, who’s guilty, who’s scamming, who’s not. Which leads to my second point:
I still don’t care. It’s all about mud. I don’t care about the mud. If, as Rex says in the post below, all the mud that has been slung is true it’s not going to make a difference in how I view these candidates — and it’s only distracting from the debates we should be having. It’s just mud.
Another commenter suggested I should push the debate to those other topics. When I did that on health care a few days ago, good discussion ensued. I’ll try. The only problem is: I’m no expert on any of those topics. That’s why I’m hoping to find bloggers who are going to be better than me at leading those discussions. So what I really want is links to the folks who know about and are talking about — from each perspective — health care, jobs, the economy, homeland security, and education … the issues that all matter one helluvalot more than mud.
The mudslinging is coming from media, campaigns, 527s, and bloggers — they’re all guilty of slinging crap instead of debating issues. I had hoped that we bloggers would be holding them all to a higher standard and, yes, I’m harping on that. Go read Rex’s post again.
: LATER: Having had the time between meetings to read more of the stories about the documents….
Yes, bloggers should be proud of exposing what, indeed, looks like a hoax. This is a great power of blogs — and I wish they would do it more often. Fact-checking the asses of media and politics should be part of our mission.
Yes, CBS should not only quote those reports and link to them but also respond more fully and immediately. Every second that clicks by on that 60 Minutes stopwatch is another degree of credibility shot.
Yes, CBS should now put its investigative powers toward find out and revealing who perpetrated the hoax. I do not assume it was CBS; I assume instead they were dopey and duped.
Yes, if anyone in the news organization is found to be complicit with a hoax in any way, it is a scandal that tops Jayson Blair by miles and harms the credibility of not only the network but also the industry. I doubt this will be the case but who knows?
Yes, CBS should vow to get to the bottom of this and make that vow quickly and publicly.
But, no, I still don’t care about the would-be Bush or Kerry military scandals. I still say it’s all about mud. I still say it’s distracting and destructive.
