Opinion:

The whole story?

Joe Gandelman, The Moderate Voice, fears that we may end up with the worst of all political worlds when the CBS forged memo story finally plays out. Apparently, there is now an assertion that the memos themselves were not original, but they "reflect real documents that once existed." This means that the forgeries that were easily exposed by bloggers will be thought of as only one part of the story. As Joe writes, "And, in the end, it'll be far easier to prove (if the report is true) that the documents are fake than that the contents are real (how do you confirm that?)." It appears that though weblogs sped the process of showing the memos themselves were forgeries the "old media" uncovered the possibility that the contents may reflect actual circumstances. As much as the traditional media are held in contempt by many bloggers, there are many stories that they do get right, and it would serve both the media and bloggers better by teaming up instead of sniping at each other.

On a related topic, all this self-congratulation I've seen everywhere on blogs that didn't even participate in proving the memos as forgeries is starting to strike a sour note. It reminds me of something I was told by my father when I was a child:

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back.

There is another wee bit of wisdom we need to keep in mind before we congratulate ourselves:

It ain't over 'till it's over.
   -Yogi Berra