BTW, great minds and all that: I thought of the Dan Rather connection to the Shirley Sherrod story as well — and it was never proven that Rather used forged documents or in any way edited the documents he did have. But he lost his career at CBS anyway, along with his experienced productions staff headed by Mary Mapes.

Next time you’re at the Berkeley Library sale, see if you can find a copy of Philip Wylie’s “Generation of Vipers” written in the 1940s. Although somewhat conservative, Wylie predicted in many ways the media world of today. Wylie also wrote “The End of the Dream” in the early 70s which Wikipedia says: “foresees a dark future where America slides into ecological catastrophe.” He may have been prescient on that score, too.