Sullivan/TNR On The Hoax
Andrew Sullivan wails on CBS News in a new post on TNR Online:
Last week, CBS News reported on fascinating and newly discovered documents that purported to show that George W. Bush did not perform his military service in the Texas National Guard adequately and that political influences got him off the hook. The alleged memos--from Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, Bush's Texas National Guard squadron commander--are almost certainly fakes. And the fakery was uncovered by a series of blog postings on a variety--a bewildering variety--of old, new, and tenacious blogs. Within a couple of days, the news about the probably forged memos had reached full circle to become stories in the MSM itself, with even The New York Times conceding that Dan Rather had almost certainly been hoaxed to some degree or other.
[snip]
This is not the first time that a major news organization has been hoaxed. It happens. But what's stunning is the way in which CBS has responded. Its defensiveness is not the attitude of any journalistic organization truly interested in finding out the truth. CBS's Jonathan Klein even went so far as to say the following: "Bloggers have no checks and balances. ... [It's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas." Actually, I'm in sweatpants and a tanktop. But of course, it doesn't matter a jot what a fact-checker is wearing as long as his facts are correct. CBS's apparently aren't.
There's been a lot of hubris in the blogosphere about this, and, indeed, some blogs, most especially Power Line, should get the blog equivalent of a Pulitzer for their dogged pursuit of the truth. But the reality is far simpler and less flattering to bloggers. Journalism is not a profession as such. It's a craft. You get better at it by doing it; and there are very few ground rules. By and large, anyone with a mind, a modem, a telephone, and a conscience can be a journalist. The only criterion that matters is that you get stuff right; and if you get stuff wrong (and you will), you correct yourself as soon as possible. The blogosphere is threatening to some professional journalists because it exposes these simple truths. It demystifies the craft. It makes it seem easy--because, in essence, it often is.
Blogging's comparative advantage has nothing to do with the alleged superior skills of bloggers or their higher intelligence, quicker wit, or more fabulous physiques. The blogosphere is a media improvement because the sheer number of blogs, and the speed of response, make errors hard to sustain for very long. The collective mind is also a corrective mind. Transparency is all. And the essence of journalistic trust is not simply the ability to get things right and to present views or ideas or facts clearly and entertainingly. It is also the capacity to admit error, suck it up, and correct what you've gotten wrong. Take it from me. I've both corrected and been corrected. When you screw up, it hurts. But in the long run, it's a good hurt, because it takes you down a peg or two and reminds you what you're supposed to be doing in the first place. Any journalist who starts mistaking himself for an oracle needs to be reminded who he is from time to time.
CBS News has failed on all these counts. It did shoddy reporting and then self-interestedly dug in against an avalanche of evidence against it. Rather can blather all he wants about the political motivation of some in the blogosphere--but what matters is not bias but accuracy. His attitude, moreover, has bordered on the contemptuous; and the blogosphere has chewed him up and spat him out. He has acted as if journalism is a privilege rather than a process; as if his long career makes his critics illegitimate; as if his good motives can make up for bad material. The original mistake was not a firable offense. But the digging in surely is.
One of the guys from the Powerline blog he references is scheduled to be on Special Report with Brit Hume a little bit later tonight (and he promises to get out of his jammies and throw on a suit).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/14/04 16:39 | Web Stuff | Technorati
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Comments
What about the bloggers who sleep in the nude, what do they wear in their living rooms? I'm at my office - I wish I knew people would buy real estate from me if I showed up in my jammies.
Posted by Tom Hanna @ 16:49 on 09/14/04
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