Sunday, December 11, 2016

Fake News, Huh?

I've been thinking about this Fake News meme that the MSM is pissing and moaning about.  They really need to clean up their act before they start talking about the problem they created.  Fake news is a problem, no doubt, but all of the biggest example of Fake News occurred in 2004 and was promulgated by no less than CBS News, then a big deal in the broadcasting world.

The face of the Fake News that night was no less than Dan Rather.  You remember him?  Yeah, he broadcast some documents that purported to harm George W. Bush's re-election bid.  Within hours, the internet in general, and Scott Johnson of Powerline along with Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs had thoroughly discredited the story.  You may remember the day that they took down the big boys.
It was like throwing a match on kerosene-soaked wood. The ensuing blaze ripped through the media establishment as previously obscure bloggers managed to put the network of Murrow and Cronkite firmly on the defensive.
The secret, says Charles Johnson, is "open-source intelligence gathering." Meaning: "We've got a huge pool of highly motivated people who go out there and use the tools to find stuff. We've got an army of citizen journalists out there."
Fake News, as far as I can tell, was born in the news room of CBS.  After those fateful several days in September, CBS was thoroughly discredited and the MSM was put on notice.  "We're watching your ass."

You want to talk about Fake News?  Go talk to Dan Rather.  If you can find him.

Oh, and if Hillary want to talk about fake news, she should talk about the Bosnian Sniper Fire story.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd also add NBC's, "Hard hitting, investigative report" of GM trucks blowing up when hit in an accident, with NBC putting incendiaries in the gas tank to make sure it blew up when hit.

You can also add ABC news to the list, covering all three major networks.

That, plus their obvious bias, is why I no longer trust the media.

-- Steve

Old NFO said...

Steve beat me to it, no question they are ALL guilty!!!

Dave said...

When it comes to Hillary, is there a bigger example of "fake news" than blaming the Benghazi attack on a YouTube video, when they knew it was al Qaeda?