CBS apologizes to President Bush

[mayfly]

CBS Apologizes Over Bush Guard Duty Memos

38 minutes ago

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - CBS News apologized Monday for a "mistake in judgment" in its story questioning President Bush (news - web sites)'s National Guard service, claiming it was misled by the source of documents that several experts have dismissed as fakes.


AP Photo


Reuters
Slideshow: President Bush




Latest headlines:
· Presidential Polls Glance
AP - 1 hour, 7 minutes ago

· Cheney Again Warns Against Choosing Kerry
AP - 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

· Duped CBS Regrets Airing Disputed Bush Memos
Reuters - 1 hour, 16 minutes ago


All Election Coverage





The network said it would appoint an independent panel to look at its reporting about the memos. The story has mushroomed into a major media scandal, threatening the reputations of CBS News and chief anchor Dan Rather.


It also became an issue in the presidential campaign. The White House said the affair raises questions about the connections between CBS's source, retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, and Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign.


Rather joined CBS News President Andrew Heyward in issuing an apology Monday.


"We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," Rather said. "It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism."


Almost immediately after the story aired Sept. 8, document experts questioned memos purportedly written by Bush's late squadron leader, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, saying they appeared to have been created on a computer and not on the kind of typewriter in use during the 1970s.


CBS strongly defended its story. It wasn't until a week later — after Killian's former secretary said she believed the memos were fake — did the news division admit they were questionable.


Burkett admitted this weekend to CBS that he lied about obtaining the documents from another former National Guard member, the network said. CBS hasn't been able to conclusively tell how he got them, or even definitely tell whether they're fakes or not. But the network has given up trying to defend them.


"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," Heyward said. "We should not have used them."


The Associated Press could not immediately reach Burkett for comment. Rather was set to interview Burkett Monday night on CBS' evening news program.


Heyward told The Associated Press it was not clear what, if any, disciplinary action would be taken against CBS News employees. Besides tainting the network's flagship broadcast, "60 Minutes," the report was a damaging blow to Rather, 72. Some have suggested the scandal, along with the low ratings of the "CBS Evening News," could hasten Rather's retirement.


"Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully," Rather said.


Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, said it appeared to be an honest mistake by CBS, not a willful attempt to deceive. But he said the network was too slow to respond.


"I think that their delaying and obvious resistance to acknowledge the evident realities has kept the story alive a lot longer than it needed to be and was a lot more damaging to CBS than it needed to be," he said.


For "60 Minutes," it's the biggest ethical mess since the 1995 incident captured in the movie "The Insider," which depicted the newsmagazine caving to pressure from CBS lawyers and not airing a whistleblowing report from an ex-tobacco executive.


Jones said questions will probably center on the story's producer, Mary Mapes. She's one of the network's top investigators and broke the story of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal photos. Her immediate boss is Josh Howard, recently named executive producer of the "60 Minutes" Wednesday edition.


White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the White House appreciated CBS's expression of regret but that there were still serious questions about Burkett.





"Bill Burkett, who CBS now says is their source, in fact is not an unimpeachable source as was previously claimed," McLellan said. "Bill Burkett is a source who has been discredited and so this raises a lot of questions. There were media reports about Mr. Burkett having senior level contacts with the Kerry campaign."

The Kerry campaign has said it had nothing to do with the story.

Burkett, a Democrat, sent an e-mail last month to several Texas Democrats, saying he had passed along information to former Georgia senator and Kerry supporter Max Cleland about information that would counter criticism of Kerry's Vietnam War service.

Cleland said Monday that he does "not have any knowledge" about documents used to support the "60 Minutes" story.

Heyward told The AP he has "no reason to believe either the Kerry campaign or the Bush campaign was involved in this."

"A lot of reporting went into this story," Heyward said. "It's not as if one person's account was taken at face value."

The call for an independent review was reminiscent of CNN's "Tailwind" scandal in 1998. The cable network retracted a story that the U.S. military had used nerve gas in Laos during the Vietnam war.

CNN appointed independent panels to look into the "Tailwind" story and the missed election calls of 2000. Both panels helped to restore trust in the network and resulted in real changes to the networks' operation, said Tom Johnson, CNN's chief executive at the time.

"As with all professions, we screw up at time," Johnson said. "We need to admit it when we do."

The so-called Killian documents indicated he was being pressured to "sugarcoat" the performance ratings of a young Bush, then the son of a former Texas congressman, and that Bush failed to follow orders to take a physical. Killian died in 1984.

Heyward said he did not think CBS' story was the result of any bias against Bush. The National Guard service story was "a legitimate area of inquiry" that several news organizations were pursuing, he said.

"The story of how this happened is going to be a much more interesting story than the veracity of these documents," Jones said, "and I hope CBS will tell it."

[mrbowler]

See Dan Rather's Goose is Cooked thread

[mayor]

Yet, being the investigative journalists that they are, for some reason they aren't telling us where the memos came from. Smell a rat from within the Kerry campaign?

[luvmetender]

It happens. They apologized. Some people can admit they made a mistake.

[mayor]

Originally Posted by luvmetender

It happens. They apologized. Some people can admit they made a mistake.

Sure, that's acceptable. But the real story lies underneath. Follow the trail of where the memos came from. That is where you will find the smoking gun. The reason CBS isn't following up on this? They KNOW where they came from and don't want to talk about it. Why? I'll let you fill in the blanks...

[monkee]

Originally Posted by luvmetender

It happens. They apologized. Some people can admit they made a mistake.

The point is, it shouldn't have happened. They overlooked alot of evidence right from the beginning that these documents were no able to be verified. Then they stuck to that position even after everyone knew they were fake. Then Rather said it didn't matter that they were fake, he still believed them.

All I can say is that this would never have happened if the memos had been about Kerry or any other democrat. CBS would have bent over backward to prove they were fake instead of trying to verify that they were real.

This whole thing is ridiculous. CBS has lost any credibility they ever had with me (which wasn't much. Weren't they behind "The Reagans"?)

[luvmetender]

Originally Posted by monkee

All I can say is that this would never have happened if the memos had been about Kerry or any other democrat. CBS would have bent over backward to prove they were fake instead of trying to verify that they were real.

I don't agree. The news jumps on anything that is potentially scandalous. Are you forgetting Monica? The blue dress? The cigars? The phone sex? Every network jumped all over that.

[mayfly]

I think the only reason why this is newsworthy is because of the election. CBS jumped on it to help sway public opinion.

[blueaguave]

I mean, they could have at least went to a swap meet and bought an old typewriter..to just print it off MS Word in New Times Roman, the default font on every computer in the world...how dumb do these big media guys think we the publc are???

[prism68]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

This is interesting. Seems there is more than meets the eye...

"As a condition for handing over the documents, CBS’s source, Bill Burkett, required that CBS arrange for a conversation between him and a senior advisor of the Kerry campaign."

then...

"Only two days after CBS aired the segment attacking President Bush, the Democratic National Committee released a nearly 4 minute video entitled "Fortunate Son" which makes many of the same arguments as the CBS story, and even uses footage from the segment. At the same time, the DNC launched a new communications strategy based on the same faulty information and carrying the same message as the video."

[mayor]

This thing smell of scandal. If it were the other way around, the libs would be prosecuting this fraud, which has a penalty of 20 YEARS in prison if found guilty. It's the law. SeeBS is history. The mainstream media is losing is choke-hold on the American people and they are gasping for air. Too bad. So sad. Buh-bye.

[blueaguave]

Originally Posted by mayor

This thing smell of scandal. If it were the other way around, the libs would be prosecuting this fraud, which has a penalty of 20 YEARS in prison if found guilty. It's the law. SeeBS is history. The mainstream media is losing is choke-hold on the American people and they are gasping for air. Too bad. So sad. Buh-bye.

it was laughably done..I would at least give credit if they bought an old Selectric at a swap meet, instead of just walking into a Kinko's and printing it off MS Word, then claiming it was a 1971 document! If this was Fraud 101, and I was the professor, it would be an F.
I mean, if you're gonna be fradulently biased, at least be good at it!