Fair enough. The specific claim he makes, in the first paragraph of his Op-Ed, is this;

But how can one erase from memory the horrifying scenes of the nighttime rocket attack on a peaceful town, the razing of entire city blocks, the deaths of people taking cover in basements, the destruction of ancient monuments and ancestral graves?

The evidence to which I referred was primarily Tom Lasseter's report for McClatchy. Some of his comments:

Russian politicians and their partners in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region South Ossetia, said that when Georgian forces tried to seize control of the city and the surrounding area, the physical damage was comparable to Stalingrad and the killings similar to the Holocaust.

But a trip to the city on Sunday, without official escorts, revealed a very different picture. While it was clear there had been heavy fighting — missiles knocked holes in walls, and bombs tore away rooftops — almost all of the buildings seen in an afternoon driving around Tskhinvali were still standing.

Russian-backed leaders in South Ossetia have said that 2,100 people died in fighting in Tskhinvali and nearby villages. But a doctor at the city's main hospital, the only one open during the battles that began late on Aug. 7, said the facility recorded just 40 deaths.

You will correctly point out that not everything Gorbachev said here is disputed, although the "razing of entire city blocks" certainly seems to be and I would argue that overall the impression Gorbachev makes is inconsistent with Lasseter's report.

As I said, I do not claim that Lasseter is free from bias or even necessarily accurate (although you would have to agree, I hope, that McClatchy has generally been noted for reliable reporting). My point is only that there is no less reason to doubt Gorbachev -- indeed, probably a lot more given that he is, after all, a Russian politician.

to Lasseter's story in McClatchy

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/48860.html

"Archaeo-journalist: high-school graduate (college OK, not mandatory); underpaid; unimportant; earns "byline" by merit (still underpaid); outsider; skeptic; cynic; aggressive; prefers to remain detached from, and adversarial to the powerful elite (distrusts power)"

In the realm of fictional hard-boiled reporters, I would also add the darkside of noir, Kirk Douglas in The Big Carnival, as a more rounded picture of the archeo-journalist.

Anyway, I've noticed a similar trajectory. I did attempt a career of the archeo-journalist type in my twenties and had some measure of success, but was never able to pierce the iron ceiling and do it consistently or (more to the point) for a living. It just seemed that without the degree (and what we're really talking about is the connects in the biz that you undoubtedly acquire from your peers)you go nowhere. The blogosphere has solved some of those issues, but you still need to be quasi-independently set for money to even contemplate life as a full time blogger.

I’m with Mikeyfil: The problem is the Mainstream media, and its gradual disintegration over the last 40 years. Think about how far we’ve come from the Watergate days, when a vigilant press fought, and won a battle with a very popular President, Richard Nixon. The Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) was borne out of that loss, and we now suffering mightily because of it. Cheney, who really is Darth Vadar, or worse, the evil Emperor, vowed to get back at the press, and he has succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.

The issue is how do we fight the RWNM, aka the Mainstream Media? (MSM) This election is far from over. While I agree that Obama has had a very poor couple of months, beginning with his own awful “move to the Right” with his terrible FISA compromise, and continuing with his poor (apparently, I didn’t actually watch it) performance at Saddleback last week, we will have the convention next week, which may rekindle “Obamania” or something more constructive. Obama is the far brighter of the two major party candidates, and, for that reason alone, should be elected. Of course, Al Gore was far brighter than W, and look what happened to him.

One way to fight the battle is to use the Internet with our friends and acquaintances to educate them on the TRUTH of various issues, including the Georgian conflict. Obama needs to free himself from the RWNM grip on the MSM, and explain his positions on various issues in an effective and persuasive manner, using the Internet and other alternative sources for information, in addition to advertising.

If McCain wins, I’m moving to Canada or Europe, before he starts WWIII with his belligerent and war-mongering views on Iraq, Iran and Russia.

GG is, once again, brilliantly incisive, which pisses lots of people off (as planned).

But the ability of the msm to wax poetic about their wunnerful relationships with those "inside" (from the bottom of the totem pole to the pinnacle of Russert, cue the music), seems also to rely upon two corollaries.

The first is Jon Alter's, roughly remembered, "it's not our job to decide whether what we are reporting is true; let the Democrats say something contradictory and we'll report that". First articulated when asked why the msm gave so much lip service to the "McCain is a maverick" gloss, this same principle fits nicely over Jessica Lynch's exploits, bentonite in the anthrax, or anything else. Such reportage could be easily defused by saying something like "the early comments from the [government] suggest X, and we continue to investigate", but this apparently uses up airtime and might diminish the grab-factor of the story.

Second is the "once I believe what I reported was wrong, it's no longer of interest." This would be Brian Ross: sure, he reported that government sources told him the anthrax had bentonite, which is found in Iraqi anthrax. But the fact that government sources said this could not possibly be of any interest once the White House denied it.

So the Rule is Believe What the Government Tells You. The First Corollary is Don't Question It. The Second Corollary is Believe the Government's Second Story, too, and Forget the First.