Ignoring the Real Issues
A part-time prof from one of the other departments saw me coming out of the journalism lab the other day and inquired about the kinds of courses I teach. It must be exciting to have all of this stuff about the Dan Rather memos to discuss, he said. I nodded politely, not wanting to get into another long discussion about the debate over the authenticity of the memos Dan Rather and CBS haved used to claim that Bush didn't live up to his National Guard commitment. Yes, it's important that we know whether the documents are legit, but people, this issue is nowhere near as important as the misrepresentations that led us to war in Iraq; it doesn't address the lack of post-invasion planning; and it doesn't deal with economic and other domestic issues facing the country. It is foolish for the candidates, media, and rest of us to get bogged down in these debates about what Kerry and Bush did or did not do 30 years ago when there are so many pressing matters for both candidates to take up right now.
That rant aside, FAIR has compiled a nice summary of the issues around Bush's National Guard service to show that, while the authenticity of the documents are important for CBS's credibility, the actual claims that CBS advanced have been made ( and backed up) in a variety of reports from other media.
12:52:41 PM 
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