So, we’ve got to go on an Easter egg hunt.

First stop, yesterday’s column. The Amazing Froomkin has this to say about Rather’s suit, in great contrast to chinless wonder Teabag Fred’s winger-rampant and disinformation-ridden Op-Ed page. Let me just fair-use the whole paragraph:

Dan Rather Watch

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters marvels at the reaction to Dan Rather’s lawsuit, specifically from all the “mainstream journalists who rushed in to denounce the former anchorman as dishonest, arrogant, bitter, and delusional, all the while making sure not to take up Rather’s challenge of addressing the underlying facts of the story surrounding Bush’s no-show military service.”

And the key point that Teabag Fred’s service providers conveniently omit:

Writes Boehlert: “[T]he dirty little secret that [winger] bloggers and mainstream journalists don’t want to discuss is that Rather is right — the National Guard story was true.”

We were never defeated on the merits of the story. Not ever. If CBS caved for business reasons after Federalist Society operative F/Buckheard fired off his Rovian triple-bankshot on serifs, that’s not our problem—except insofar as Bush got selected again, because our famously free press happily accepted any excuse to drop the story, of course.

Second stop, the long Googled list of Froomkin’s exhaustive posting—thank The God(ess)(e)(s) of Your Choice for Froomkin:

For more background, here’s some of my own coverage of the controversy over Bush’s service.

Third stop, the Easter Egg!

September 9, 2004:

A Nod to the Web
Eric Boehlert writes in Salon about amateur researcher Paul Lukasiak, who on his AWOL Project Web site, has been “closely examining the paperwork, and more important, analyzing U.S. statutory law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, Lukasiak arrived at the overwhelming conclusion that not only did Bush walk away from his final two years of military obligation, coming dangerously close to desertion, but he attempted to cover up his absenteeism through swindle and fraud.”

(Coincidentally, or not, this paragraph was followed by a descrption of Bush refusing to leave his plane and talk to the press. I wonder why?)

If we had a functioning free press, somebody with resources would have been all over this. Instead, Lukasiak’s careful work got drowned out by the Swift Boaters and ignored by the stenographers.

And note, please, the distinction between the Killian memos, whose provenance was, at best, subject to challenge*, and Lukasiak, who was relying on primary sources and statutes.

It would be nice if things were different today, and we could get a do-over on this. This story screams for coverage, especially before 2008, when all the players who covered up for Bush in 2004 are going to be on the field again, running plays from the playbook that we already know too well.

NOTE Unfortunately, the CalPundit links are dead. Bottom line was that Rather, Mapes, and CBS would have been well-advised to check with the blogosphere before making a move on this story.

NOTE Actually, his editors probably thought the Easter Egg hunt would be hard. It really took about thirty seconds. If you know where to look.

UPDATE Via C&L, Sidney Blumenthal has an excellent blow-by-blow description of the episode. And Eric Boehlert, still on the case, has another one.