Dan Rather’s career came into jeopardy in September 2004 during the presidential campaign in a story that is now referred to as Rathergate. The CBS series 60 minutes aired a story about then President George W. Bush receiving special treatment in his service with the Air National Guard. These documents were alleged to come from the archives of Lt. Jerry B. Killian. Very quickly bloggers claimed that these documents must be forgeries because the papers were typed in a modern script that wasn’t available on military typewriters when President Bush served.
CBS initially defended the story but could not come up with the sufficient evidence needed to prove these articles were legitimate. The network would later retract their story but the damage had already been done. The credibility of the network and its reporters came into question and this led to the termination of many including one of television’s most revered reporters Dan Rather.
I recently have become aware of this story and this situation leaves me in awe on how powerful the blogs have over traditional journalism. . Not only do these blogs provide journalists news ideas for journalists but they also have created a much higher standard for journalists to stick to the fair and balanced. It does not even matter whether these documents were fabricated or not. It only matters that the credibility of these journalists were tainted and this was by a media source that even five years ago did not seem to have much power. This is comforting in the sense that journalists are being held to a higher standard. In my opinion blogs are becoming increasingly important. They do not distract from the stories that are truly important but rather just give a different source for these stories to emerge from. Blogs create new stories while making current stories ever more valid and therefore better journalism.
As a news consumer this story has alerted me to wake up and realize that I have become very ignorant and fixed in my ways when it comes to looking news stories. I read the paper or flip on the television normally but I need to be looking elsewhere for news stories than the traditional sources I am used to.
As a new journalism student I think this story is an important one to gain perspective from so I can better pursue a career in this field. I think this story is a good lesson in teaching all the importance of sticking to the fair and balanced. If one of the giants in this industry can be taken down then anyone can. On the other hand, it is encouraging to know that there are other fields of journalism developing and the options I have in getting involved in journalism seem vast.
When looking at this issue from the prospective of a voter I think my opinion is vastly different. I do not think this story has a dramatic effect on the way I will vote in the future. I already didn’t want to listen to the media for political advice. The reporters seem to only be arguing with each other about these issues rather than relaying any important information to me their audience. This is not productive and I rather listen to the politicians and the issues they are concerned with.
This story does not affect the way I view journalists but it has brought me to the realization that web logs need to be paid a little more respect than being called the “Pajama Brigade”. The roles of blogs in the upcoming world of journalism seem endless.
I really like this post. Your opinion is very similar to mine, so our blog posts were really similar as well. I also like that you addressed each part of the question Professor Stevens asked and it made it more personal to see how you view journalism for each viewpoint. Overall, this was a good post, but nothing really stood out to make it outstanding in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteGood post, but make sure you proof read to catch punctuation errors.
ReplyDelete