Comedy Central Claims Rumsfeld Get

Could the Internet component of a half-hour comedy have gotten a big scoop? They think so.

Comedy Central claims its Indecider blog was the first with the rumor--which proved true--that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was resigning.

According to the channel, "token conservative" Michael Brendan Dougherty broke the rumor with the following at 12:15 a.m.:

"The buzz I'm hearing from a friend, and a totally unconfirmed White House source (remember Comedy Central doesn't have journalistic standards), is that Rumsfeld will be out of the administration tomorrow.

This is a shocker even to the totally unnamed source in the White House. Already, we are seeing reports of a White House Press conference scheduled for tomorrow at 1 p.m. Could this be it?

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.