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September 21, 2004
Not with a bang.. but a whimper
I have a prediction, one that I made in my head several days ago, but I didn't bother writing it until now, where it may be completely obvious to everyone.
Memogate is going to die, and nothing significant is going to result from CBS's malfeasance.
It's already clear - CBS offers a half-hearted apology, and virtually everyone in the media nods their head and moves on. There will be no:
- Digging to see if there was collusion between Burkett and the KE campaign
- Investigation of the source of the documents
- Early retirement of Dan Rather
- Significant fallout to CBS for taking this stance
I am virtually certain that this will be forgotten by the masses in 10 days. No one will care, because the idea of collusion between CBS and the KE campaign is just not very interesting or meaningful. Plus, the rest of the media is generally rooting for CBS. So no one will gather enough energy and momentum to carry this forward through the inertia of "they issued an apology.. let it go."
Now, it would be totally different if this were a Republican-based event - there would be lots of tenacious digging and interviewing and analysis, and the liberal bloggers would be experiencing perpetual orgasms as they gleefully ripped into "Watergate II". [It isn't a question that the president commited a violation of campaign finance reform. It's a question of how many violations he committed], etc, etc, etc.
The only major media outlet likely to pursue this is Fox News, and, generally speaking, Fox News is considered slightly deranged by the average person. They aren't going to care what Fox News says about this issue, because Fox News is their crazy uncle who always goes on about how communists have infiltrated the government. "Kerry and CBS conspired to produce those memos!!" "So what, Uncle Robert? It's not like anyone believed them - it's not worth getting into a fuss over. Have you taken your meds today?"
So, give it up and move on. Rather is not going to resign. Mapes is not going to resign and Heyward is not going to resign. Because CBS eventually issued an apology, the regular viewer will consider CBS's credibility to be generally, restored, and there will be no long-term ill effect to 60 minutes, CBS News or Viacom.
Unfortunately.
Posted by jb at September 21, 2004 03:13 PM
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