NEW YORK - With questions swirling around documents used by CBS in a story about President Bush's National Guard service, Matt Sheffield experienced something unique. His Web site, Ratherbiased.com, crashed because of all the visitors.

It was that kind of week for Dan Rather.

CBS acknowledged questions about memos that impugned the future president's military record - after partisan news outlets aggressively challenged CBS' sources ahead of traditional news organizations.

That attests to the influence of these news watchdogs, who have likely fed a growing suspicion of mainstream media and, some argue, made some journalists gun-shy.

Bloggers began buzzing about the documents within hours of Rather's Sept. 8 "60 Minutes" story. It's believed that the first news story was posted about midday Sept. 9 by the Cybercast News Service, formerly the Conservative News Service, and was quickly picked up by the Drudge Report.

CNS quoted three experts who suspected the document was produced by a computer, not a 1970s typewriter.

"We've done a lot of stories about this because we know a big chunk of our audience that is suspicious of all things liberal, is suspicious of liberal media as well," said David Thibault, CNS managing editor.

No site watches Rather more closely than Ratherbiased.com, started in 2000 by a Washington-area Web designer and his brother.

"We felt Dan Rather has accrued an undeserved reputation for being a great and fair journalist," said Sheffield, the site's managing editor. "A lot of times he does good work, but when politics comes into play a lot of times he lowers his standards."

Conservative-oriented Web sites such as NewsMax.com and Worldnetdaily.com also have a heavy concentration of media stories. The Media Research Center has voluminous files on the networks, and keeps a particularly close eye on ABC's Peter Jennings.

On the other side, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting monitors media from a liberal point of view, and demonstrators during the GOP convention targeted Fox News Channel.

Yet this is an area dominated by conservatives, and no media figure incites deep-seated suspicion quite like Rather. If Ted Kennedy is their political bogeyman, Rather is their journalistic one.

They remember his famous exchange with former President Nixon in 1974. After Rather was applauded when he stood to ask a question, Nixon said, "are you running for something?" Rather snapped back: "No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?"

They remember Rather's testy 1988 interview with the current President Bush's father. And they remember Rather's ill-considered attendance at a 2001 Democratic fund-raiser in Texas.

So to many viewers, when Rather reports on Bush's National Guard service, it's an attack, not a story.

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