Culturally, this to me is a turning point of the political bloggers -- the knee in the curve of their credibility and a large drop in the trust of the news media, particularly among conservatives.
The blogs leading the document debunking were Powerline and Little Green Footballs.
This was also when the term Pajamas Media was coined (quote from wikipedia PJ_Media page):
> The network's original name was derived from a dismissive comment made by former CBS news executive Jonathan Klein during the 2004 Killian documents affair: "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances at 60 Minutes and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."
I followed the whole thing closely at the time -- it was a bit surreal.
That whole ordeal seems so quaint now, in retrospect. I wonder if this happened in today's day and age, CBS would have anticipated that the twitter gonzo journalism class would rapidly attempt to identify flaws in the doc and vet it harder?
it was their, the traditional media, wake up call. it also forever broke the belief that the media was impartial. remember that while Rather and Mapes brought this shameful act of reporting we got to witness the New York Times go full Onion with a "fake but accurate" declaration.
Could it happen now? Not as blatant but I simply believe they have changed to simply relying more on innuendo and unidentifiable sources.
The blogs leading the document debunking were Powerline and Little Green Footballs.
This was also when the term Pajamas Media was coined (quote from wikipedia PJ_Media page):
> The network's original name was derived from a dismissive comment made by former CBS news executive Jonathan Klein during the 2004 Killian documents affair: "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances at 60 Minutes and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."
I followed the whole thing closely at the time -- it was a bit surreal.