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CBS and Rather Admit Mistakes in Bush Documents

Vexler writes "The word this afternoon from CBS regarding the authenticity of the national guard memos of President Bush is that they cannot be trusted, confirming what several document experts had already suggested. In Dan Rather apologized for a 'mistake in judgment.' I have to wonder though: What would be the price CBS (or CNN, during the 2000 presidential election in which the final tally from Florida was changed several times before they realized that a recount may be needed) would pay for 'mistakes' of this type? What are some of your thoughts regarding 'moderating' (think /.) a news agency when it admits that more than just an honest mistake has been committed in its reporting?" There is still one big question remaining unanswered, too: who forged the memos? Where did they come from? Burkett, the man who provided them to CBS, won't say where he got them.

6 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who did this damage more? by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1, Troll

    60 Minutes didn't even think that telling us that Indian programmers are getting our jobs because they are *better* with their IIT degrees than we are with 10-20 years of experience was insulting. I think CBS can readily be dismissed as an actual news source- and was a long time ago by anybody watching these things. So no- I don't think whoever gave the documents to Burkett would have thought that their forgery would have been caught so quickly.

    If it was the Republicans, then not only does it not pass the smell test- it means that Rove & Crew are so smart, so underhanded, that Kerry might as well concede the election today.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  2. Re:Look at the those MEMOS! Look only at the MEMOS by LoveLiberty2004 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well, but, but, but... "That's not at all what she said --go read the transcripts --and she's also the same person who was quoted in the Dallas Morning News as saying that the thought Bush was "selected, not elected." No possible agenda there, no sir." But, he wasn't elected. That's a statement of fact, not an agenda. (Frankly I have not gone off and done all the research into every little detail of this or that or the other as I could care less. But truth be told, Bush never would've signed up for a National Guard en route to Iraq... which is just what he's doing now!) http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31689-20 04Sep18?language=printer

    --
    http://www.loveliberty2004.com
  3. Re:Look at the those MEMOS! Look only at the MEMOS by overunderunderdone · · Score: 1, Troll

    The story was well researched, includes a lot of interviews

    No, it wasn't, and what interviews? Ben Barnes? (Kerry campaign Vice Chair and number three fund-raiser) Bill Burkett? (Democratic activist with a personal animus towards Bush who has retracted some of his past accusations). Hodges? (who claims they misrepresented what he said - given their misrepresentation of the document experts that is only too believable).

    The only credible testimony is the secretary who wasn't interviewed during the "five years of research" and the original story but only came up after a local paper researched it for maybe a week. Even in her case CBS ignores any evidence (such as her own partisanship or the fact that she was a pool, not a private secretary) that undermines their predetermined storyline.

    On the other side of the ledger is the interviews they chose not to include in their report. Killian's family, several of Bush's fellow pilots as well as Staudt. Certainly their testimony is just as liable to be suspect due to partisanship, personal friendships etc. But it seems more than fair to call such a report "one sided" or even "biased". The story of Bush's status as a "fortunate son" is a LOT more ambiguous than the CBS/DNC account.

    Finally, i don't think that a major news organization pushing forged documents in an attempt to influence an election is a insignificant "shiny toy." I'm sure if ABC News and the Wall Street Journal pushed a major story blasting Kerry based on crudely forged documents from an "unimpeachable" source that turned out to be John O'Neill and the testimony of a Bush fundraising "Ranger" you would think it was an important issue - even if they found a secretary to confirm the documents as "fake, but accurate" (and as an aside mentioned that Kerry was a "flip-flopper" she just didn't trust)

  4. Re:Karl Rove talks with George W. Bush by PowerEdge · · Score: 0, Troll

    They already came up with that film, it was called Fahrenheit 9/11.

  5. Re:Allow Me to Rant About This by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 0, Troll

    In the next breath, you resort to name calling

    I didn't resort to it. I reveled in it.

    Check out your other posts on this thread

    How sweet. I have a fan.

    You suck, dipshit! Go home.

    But ...I am home. So very confused.

    Seriously, can we please have a debate where disagreements don't result in name calling?

    Sure. As long as the ignorant fuckwits stay out of it.

    Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to say something about logical fallacies: don't use them.

    I'd like to say something about your something: grow the fuck up. "Ah! Ah! Logical fallacy!" may have impressed the girls in seventh grade, but this is grown-up time. If you want to have a conversation, have a conversation. If you don't, take your lame-ass cries of "fallacy!" and get off the field.

    "But he's not playing by the rules! He's using dirty words and calling people names and committing logical fallacies!"

    "Yes, but he's also right."

    "But it's not fair!"

    Waa waa waa.

    --

    I write in my journal
  6. Re:Allow Me to Rant About This by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 0, Troll

    The Texas Politician "spreading rumours" is the one THAT PULLED THE STRINGS.

    No, he's the one that says he pulled strings, that has said he pulled strings ever since 1994, but that cannot produce a single piece of documentary evidence or a corroborating witness to back up his story that he pulled strings.

    He's also got a very old and very well documented grudge against Bush.

    I have a real problem with cowards. Bush is one, by definition.

    Oooh, yes, you're a real bad ass.

    Now kids are dying in fucking Iraq, which did NOT have any WMD

    Except they did, chemical, biological and radiological. But you just keep on insisting that they didn't have any, or that they didn't have enough, or that they didn't have the right kind, or whatever the spin of the week is.

    They did NOT have any hand in 9/11.

    No, they were just planning the next one.

    Hussein may have been a despot, but he was evidently cool when he was OUR despot.

    Which part of that sentence is the bad part?

    Nor was he any worse than the dozens of petty dictators we support EVERY goddam DAY.

    Name one.

    Yeah, I got alot to be angry about, asshole.

    If I were as ignorant and as foolish as you, I'd be pretty pissed off too. Need a hug?

    --

    I write in my journal