Memogate...The Honeymoon is Over

Now that CBS has come out and basically said "We're stupid and bitter and partisan", the rest of the media is back peddling on their indictments of that station. We've heard every news outlet in the past week talk about how "serious" and "bad for credibility" this whole affair has been. I've actually been in shock about how well the big news organizations have jumped on this after it was picked up.

Apparently, these organizations now realize just how damaging something like this could be, not only to CBS, but to their own business as well. And they must have realized just how humiliating it is that it took a bunch of "guys in their pajamas" to find the truth. That's the only explanation for the near about face that the media took immediately after CBS' announcement today.

Jeff Greenfield said on CNN earlier today, "I just...It makes you wonder how this would have gone if it hadn't been Rather. Because...You know, the conservatives have really had it out for Rather since Watergate. And...I just wonder how the conservatives would have handled this if Fox News had broken the story, if you can imagine that happening, because I think they would have believed it."

The LA Time took the chance to point out that it was a conservative blogger who first noticed the problems with the font. They also take plenty of time to point out that he's not a type expert, he's "just" a Republican blogger. That's funny, CBS had experts who couldn't figure it out, supposedly but a "guy in his pajamas" could figure it out in two hours.

I can't blame the news media for fearing the demise of their world of influence and all. But, it's time for them to just get over it. Perhaps, just maybe they wouldn't be in such trouble if they actually stuck to reporting the news in honest ways instead of pushing partisan garbage on us. But that's asking a lot.