The pajama put-down

From today's WSJ Opinion Journal, a repeat of the comment made by a former CBS executive when questioned about the authenticity of documents featured on CBS's "60 Minutes" program last week:

A watershed media moment occurred Friday on Fox News Channel, when Jonathan Klein, a former executive vice president of CBS News who oversaw "60 Minutes," debated Stephen Hayes, a writer for The Weekly Standard, on the documents CBS used to raise questions about George W. Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service.

Mr. Klein dismissed the bloggers who are raising questions about the authenticity of the memos: "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of check and balances [at '60 Minutes'] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing."

He will regret that snide disparagement of the bloggers, many of whom are skilled lawyers or have backgrounds in military intelligence or typeface design. A growing number of design and document experts say they are certain or almost certain the memos on which CBS relied are forgeries.

A comment at least one blogger commemorated with a pajama graphic (at right).

As more experts line up with the bloggers who initially fingered the documents as potential forgeries, the position of CBS has become less strident.

As the discussion of this event becomes more wide-spread, the interest has shifted from President Bush's military service to the vetting process used by a major media source to authenticate documents used for broadcasts of controversial material. The degree to which this controversy touches on the reliability of the news organizations themselves isn't yet known, but it is certain that the corporate owners are watching. From the Wall Street Journal, this comment:

"The network, owned by Viacom Inc., along with its veteran anchor Dan Rather, has a lot riding on the authenticity of the four memos.

'If the documents are proven to be fake, it will be a terrible, devastating blow,' says Larry Grossman, former president of NBC News. 'People will be fired, the program loses its credibility and Dan Rather ends a distinguished career with his reputation besmirched.'"