With how they had been duped by the TANG memos I am surprisde they did not bite at a story from a guy with an axe to grind.
Once bitten, twice shy and all that.
Here is a quote from the story:
"The story would have been out a lot sooner if major media organizations hadn't been so reticent to produce important new revelations in the last month of a campaign," complains Baker. He refused to divulge the names of specific publications that balked but says they worried about being "tarred" as having it in for Bush, with some drawing a direct line to the scandal surrounding CBS and the bogus documents on Bush's National Guard service.The bogus TANG memos were the cause of this not being followed, however, it was not
big by any stretch of the imagination.
Bush's "failure" could have been that he didn't pursue more active duty.