CBS Report Released
By Erick Posted in Breaking News — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The CBS Report on Rathergate is released. The greatest irony of the whole story, as CBS News reports it, is that the network and its investigators, still cling to the false hope that the documents might have been real. "While the panel said it was not prepared to brand the Killian documents as an outright forgery, it raised serious questions about their authenticity and the way CBS News handled them." While heads will roll because the public demands it, CBS will most likely learn nothing from this.
Read on . . .
According to CBS's article on the report:
Four CBS News employees, including three executives, have been ousted for their role in preparing and reporting a disputed story about President Bush’s National Guard service.
The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with “rigid and blind” defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report.
Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Mary Murphy. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated.
The correspondent on the story, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, is stepping down as anchor of CBS Evening News.
Despite clear evidence found in the blogosphere, the report found no evidence of a political agenda at work and apparently laid most of the blame at Mary Mapes feet. The report appears to let Rather mostly slide. Note, however, how CBS's article quoted above alludes to Rather stepping down over this scam, but does not directly say so. Note further that CBS denies the connection between Rather's resignation and the report when asked publically about Rather's resignation.
In short, the report fails to articulate what was obvious to everyone: Dan Rather and CBS tried to defeat Bush with this report and their faith in their world view of Bush -- that he was a draft dodging cokehead not fit for public office -- along with Rather's built up grudge against the Bush family, sent them blindly over the edge to their own destruction.
Until CBS recognizes that its news division operates as a mouthpiece for liberal interests, it will continue to make the same mistakes regardless of what new procedures it implements. When you think something is the truth, you tend to act on it, even when it is a lie built on a lie preying on your sense of the truth. CBS was willingly scammed and then willingly participated in the scam to scam the voting public.
After rushing the piece to air, the panel said, CBS News compounded the error by blindly defending the story. In doing so, the news organization missed opportunities to set the record straight.
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CBS Report Released 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
truely believe that Rather was the top of the pyramid. It was his face and his voice, and his program that spewed, then supported the obvious disinformation.
Much of what I read portrays Rather as a poor, overburdened, news reader betrayed by staff and support.
Sorry. Can't buy that image. Rather knew exactly what he was doing. Fortunately for him he was perched atop a fairly high pile of (potential) scapegoats.
The guy has been 'getting away with it' for 35 years, and more.
I would like, at least, to see him reprimanded, and his biases acknowledged to the public.
But, then again, I will be the first to acknowledge that thirty-odd years of Rather on TV (and elsewhere) might have slightly skewed my objectivity on the man.
So, despite there being "serious questions," there's still a chance--in the panel's collective mind--that the documents are authentic?? Wouldn't the proper reaction, if that's the case, be continued investigation into authenticity? Aren't they bothered by the possibility that they just fired a bunch of people who broke a legitimate news story?
No. Of course they know the documents are forgeries. But that conclusion requires it's own further investigation: Who forged them? And who at CBS knew they were forged?
Too little was done here.
why there should be a full bipartisan (or nonpartisan) investigation with subpoena power into the 2004 election.
The lowest person (the one who did the actual work on this) on the greasy pole gets fired.
The folks in the middle (management) get asked to retire.
And the guy at the putative top (the talking head) can leave under his own power.
If I were a Marxist, I would be hollering about class distinctions right about now - and I might just have a point, too. :)
While it was perfectly appropriate for those directly involved to be removed, Rather is leaving on is own terms and the guy who runs this dream team, Andrew Heyward, gets a complete pass. As I mention on my blog, when a team loses, the head coach gets fired, not just his subordinates. Without a change in leadership, Rathergate will repeat, with new players taking over for West, Howard, Murphy, and Mapes.
FWIW, CBS even botched the original Web release of the report, which doesn't exactly inspire my confidence in them.
The low standards remain at SeeBS.
Did CBS try to influence the Presidential election with a fraudulent report? Thornburgh answers it indirectly by avoiding it.
Major players have been pushed out and the most directly repsonsible editor was fired, not just asked to leave. I think Rather should have been among those asked to leave, but he was pushed out of his coveted role as anchor.
It would be nice if CBS acknowledged the political undertones of the whole issue, but they are free to have their biases. They ran afoul when the editing aspect of the program broke down and those people are being reprimanded. I will still view CBS with skepticism due to their political leaning, but in my mind they did take the whole episode seriously.