Future historians of the birth of internet as a political force will remark on CBS News's ineptness in attempting to put Rathergate behind them (and us). We are about to receive another burst of interest in the case, as the questions just keep accumulating, and the story tells us more and more about the inner workings of a once proud pillar of Main Stream Media. 

For some reason the MSM has looked down at the likes of tabloids such as the National Enquirer, which are so unlike their respectable elite selves.  Oooh, their screaming headlines.  Their exploitation of the bizarre  And of course their downscale demographics. One of the psychological advantages of membership in an elite is the conceit that there are many unworthies out there, unable to grasp your level of thinking.
 
That was so last century. Actually that was so last year! 

According to the New York Post's Page Six column on January 31:

Mike Walker, the venerable gossip columnist for the National Enquirer for the National Enquirer. Walker has a book, "Rather Dumb: A Top Tabloid Reporter Tells CBS How to Do News," coming out in two weeks in which he gleefully takes on Rather and the rest of "the media elite." Walker argues that he and his dirt—digging colleagues at the tabloids are far better at investigating dubious documents than the over—educated "journalists" at the networks. "We know about documents," Walker told PAGE SIX. "The Enquirer has specialized in going through people's garbage. For CBS, it's amateur night in Dixie." The book is being published by Nelson Current, an imprint of Thomas Nelson in Nashville, Tenn., the world's largest publisher of Bibles.

For a bunch of New York sophisticates like the Four Seasons—dining, Hamptons—summering, Town Car—chauffeured swells  at CBS,  ridicule over professional skills from The National Enquirer is not only a blow to self—esteem, it is utterly corrosive to social standing. Amateur night in Dixie' thrusts the stiletto in even deeper. A smug sense of alleged superiority to Southern rubes is one of the last psychological comforts available to besieged Northeast media liberals who have lost their media monopoly, their political influence with the ruling party, and their prestige. Strip them of their last, desperate pretensions and they have nothing at all.

Even worse humiliation faces CBS News. The only person they fired in the wake of the Rathergate scandal is negotiating to babble her version of events to rival ABC. And in a final twist, she'll reveal all just prior to Dan Rather's final broadcast.

Also from Page Six:

IS Mary Mapes, the only CBS News staffer fired in the wake of Memogate, about to spill her guts on ABC? Sources say that Mapes — Dan Rather's longtime producer who obtained the bogus National Guard memos — has been wooed by rival ABC stars Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters. Mapes is said to be leaning toward Sawyer. The Mapes interview, timed to air before before Rather retires from his evening news anchor chair on March 9, will be helpful to.

A blockbuster Mapes broadcast television appearance, available to everyone in the country, just prior to Rather's Evening News sayonara will make Rathergate once again the talk of the nation. It will undoubtedly help publicize Walker's book, too.

Axing Mapes while letting Dan Rather and senior executives continue to earn munificent salaries, is a recipe for a bitter ex—employee. Unless you have an operation which never makes a mistake, bitter ex—employees can do a lot of damage if they are media—savvy. If they are media professionals like Mapes, they have more to gain by building a new career as your best—selling critic than they could expect by keeping their mouths shut and hoping for another job in the industry. If Mapes makes for an interesting television interview (actually, even if she doesn't), can a book contract offer be far behind?

The bloggers will assimilate the added data from Walker and Mapes, and then the unique distributed information processing capability of the internet will take over. Thousands of people or more will examine the information and add it to what they already know. Two and two will get put—together, and further questions asked. They will look up more information on the web, and assess the implications. They will post their findings with hyperlinks to their sources embedded within. Others will read them, follow the hyperlinks, add their own two cents worth of data gathering or reasoning, and post it, where others will see it and continue processing information,

A vast collective of investigators will be collaborating. They will leave few stones unturned.

Somewhere, somehow, someday all the news that's fit to know will come out.