"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Friday, September 17, 2004
Heard It On the Grapevine
opin-ion Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin opinion-, opinio, from opinari
1 a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter b : APPROVAL, ESTEEM
2 a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b : a generally held view
3 : what Dan Rather and CBS have had turned against them the last couple of weeks
I thought you might get a kick out of some of today's headlines and comments about "Memogate."
In "Memogate Torpedoes Dan Rather and CBS", The Independant News from the United Kingdom says "The winner of the US Presidential election has yet to be decided. But a couple of losers are already apparent - CBS News, which ran the now largely discredited memos about George Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, and the network's veteran anchorman, Dan Rather."
David Allen Jared's article "Dan Rather's Public Humiliation" concludes by saying "The only honorable thing for Dan Rather, now 72, to do would be for him to resign and quietly disappear into well-deserved obscurity. It would be the honorable thing, so don't bank on it happening."
Lee Zehlhart's article "Dan Rather's CBS - If the News Doesn't Fit Make It Up" states "So come on. Let's forget truth and integrity in news reporting. Let's make something up, right Dan? Then we can make the facts fit it later."
In "Dan Rather Makes a Big Mess" from Elites TV, it is said that "Dan Rather must feel like an idiot these days, so much as a respected news anchor can feel like an idiot." Elites TV is a liberal website, by the way.
The article "Dan Rather's Suspicious Alliance with the Kerry Campaign" written by John Schmidt on Michnews.com states that "Rather's ultimate goal was to destroy Bush before November 2nd." Yes, thats a conservative website, but the amazing thing is that they can say this and people take it very seriously.
Roger Franklin has a wonder column in the New Zealand Herald entitled "Writers in Pyjamas Leave the Professionals Behind" (writers in pyjamas being, of course, bloggers) where he writes "If we choose not to do our jobs - if, like Rather, we permit the perception that political sympathies count for more than facts - what credibility do we have?"
Human Events Online, in an article titled "Impeach Dan Rather" (can you guys just speak up and say what you mean?) they observe that "Rather isn't acting like Nixon. He's acting like Clinton. Nixon retained enough respect for the office he held to resign when he had disgraced it."
The Fredericksberg Freelance Star, in a column titled (apparentally) "Rath", states "A legion of bloggers who shared knowledge online handily debunked Mr. Rather's story, bit by bit picking clean the carcass of his scoop. It was the Old Media overcome by the New--and a triumph for truth."
