This was possibly a victory for good journalism, maybe a victory for the bloggers, and perhaps just a sign that the guy who gets elected gets his way with the media. I'm not entirely sure which, but the Washington Post has an article about CBS's firing of 4 staffers related to the Dan Rather (now gone himself) 60-Minutes program about George W. Bush's time in the National Guard.

The picture painted by the investigators Independent Report was one of CBS trying to get the story out without proper checking, but not that there was any political bias in their doing so. However, it does make one wonder how the story would have been followed-up if the people involved were more Bush-leaning. My guess is that they would have tried to authenticate the documents better in order to make sure that "their man" wasn't tarnished without good reason. However, their bias against the subject made them more willing to believe the evidence in front of them, however fake it may have been.

The blogging community has gotten a pat on the back for this one, as there were some calling the issue a hoax from the beginning. However, there are an awful lot of bloggers out there, and some of them were the same people providing the false information.

And with the timing of the report being released after the election, you have to wonder a bit what the outcome would have been if the Kerry had won...

In the end, though, I am pleased to see that the news media is at least going through the motions of trying to get things done right.