Bloggers' 'Moment' Doesn't Make for a Revolution

The John Kerry part may or may not come to pass, but there is little doubt that a few people using their computers certainly gave CBS News and anchor Dan Rather a beating. Right-wing blogs -- "blog" is short for web log -- and forums such as Power Line, Little Green Footballs and Free Republic were the first to question the authenticity of four memos released by CBS News, purportedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who supervised George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard unit in the early 1970s. The memos were part of a "60 Minutes" story reported by Rather, questioning President Bush's fulfillment of his Guard service. The buzz created by the blogs became deafening and the story moved like lightning onto the Drudge Report, and from there to talk radio, cable news and newspapers' front pages -- and it's not over yet.

Bloggers cheered that the new-media David had slain the old-media Goliath.

Michelle Malkin wrote a column, titled "The Death Cry of Snob Journalism," that she described (on her own blog, natch) as an "Old Media eulogy." Rather may become the second kill for bloggers; two years ago, bloggers' steadfast attention on Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's comments expressing nostalgia for segregation led to old-media coverage and, ultimately, Lott's resignation from his leadership post.

Now right-wing bloggers have tasted blood -- and they like it. Best of all, it was CBS News, Rather and "60 Minutes," three bastions of establishment journalism, reaping the whirlwind.

But Malkin and other bloggers are getting ahead of themselves by asserting that the CBS disputed memos represent the death knell for traditional journalism.

First, it's worth remembering how many other news stories -- basically, er, all of them -- have not been broken by the blogosphere. The obvious analogue to the suspicious memos about Bush's National Guard service was last month's spurious attacks on Kerry's military service in Vietnam. Though decried by leftie bloggers, the charges were not adequately debunked until newspapers like the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune reaped the reward from Freedom of Information Act searches of decades-old military records and published eyewitness testimonials. Old-fashioned reporting won that round.