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"After an outcry from the White House and conservative bloggers who claimed that the report had been based on falsified documents, CBS retracted the story, saying that the documents' authenticity could not be verified. Rather, who had been with CBS for decades and was one of the most familiar faces in American journalism, was fired by the network the day after the 2004 election."

On Friday morning’s The Early Show on CBS, viewers were treated to what almost seemed like a parody of Barack Obama’s mainstream media paparazzi fawning over the Democratic President-elect, as the show ran a report exploring the question of "How cool is Obama?" and co-hosts Harry Smith and Tracy Smith referred to Obama as "the man" and "the epitome of cool," respectively. Audio of the classic rock group the Chiffons singing "He’s So Fine" even played as the piece on Obama’s "coolness" began. Tracy Smith oozed as she plugged the segment: "We’re actually talking about how a lot of people...

When it comes to bailouts of American business, Barney Frank and the Congress may be just getting started. Nearly two trillion tax dollars have been shoveled into the hole that Wall Street dug and people wonder where the bottom is. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, it turns out the abyss is deeper than most people think because there is a second mortgage shock heading for the economy. In the executive suites of Wall Street and Washington, you're beginning to hear alarm about a new wave of mortgages with strange names that are about to become all too familiar. If you...

"60 Minutes" Barney Frank lovefest was in full fear on December 14th in its profile of the voluble of the House Banking Committee - portraying Frank as the irascible but lovable public servant who is working 24/7 to save the planet from the financial crisis.  What is skated over is Frank's complicity in its origins, his former partner who was knee deep at Fannie Mae and Frank's little episode with a prostitution ring being run out of his domicile - which of course, he didn't know about - as if any other politician would get away with that jive. 

A military judge must review unaired portions of a CBS "60 Minutes" interview with Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich in which he recounts the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians following a roadside bombing, a military appeals court has ruled. Prosecutors contend that Wuterich may make admissions on those tapes, known as outtakes, that could help them prove him guilty of manslaughter and related offenses in the 2005 slayings in the Iraqi city of Haditha. The Nov. 17 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces is the latest in an ongoing skirmish between CBS and the Marine...

Is Harry Smith sad that the Mumbai terrorists missed their intended American and British targets and hit Indians? Strange as it sounds, it's hard to interpret his remark of this morning otherwise. Smith was discussing the attacks on the Early Show with CBS terrorism expert Jere Van Dyk when he made his bizarre observation. View video here.

When Dan Rather filed suit against CBS 14 months ago -- claiming, among other things, that his former employer had commissioned a politically biased investigation into his work on a "60 Minutes" segment about President Bush's National Guard service -- the network predicted the quick and favorable dismissal of the case, which it derided as "old news." So far, Mr. Rather has spent more than $2 million of his own money on the suit. And according to documents filed recently in court, he may be getting something for his money. Using tools unavailable to him as a reporter — including...

After spending much of the spring and summer hyping the dire consequences of rising gas prices, CBS on Thursday night decided the plummeting cost of gas at the pump is really bad news. Noting that “crude settled at about $58 a barrel today, that's about $90 less than it was in July,” fill-in CBS Evening News anchor Harry Smith warned “that comes as a mixed blessing.” Reporter Mark Strassmann found an ecstatic man paying less than $2.00 a gallon, but Strassmann spoiled the mood: “Low gas prices are also bad news and the lower prices go, the worse the news...

American firm found to be illegally transporting tech trash to China, transforming a town in southern China into a toxic wasteland There's little doubt that China is heavily polluted. This was showcased at the Beijing Olympics, which were held under constant fear of smog. The country is also the world's largest CO2 emitter. China and the U.S. have long played the blame game over who is to blame for the other's pollution. NASA studies have shown that as much as 15 percent of the U.S. air pollution is simply smog blown over from China. The Chinese, however, say that it’s...

Okay you'll have to excuse the lateness in following up on what I heard. I (temporarily) live and work in a different time zone than most of you (US CST + 9) and I wasn't able to log on yesterday. Anyway we're listening to AFN radio after the night shift Friday morning, which equated to approximately 5:24pm EST. On the second of the two stations available, we were treated to an audio broadcast the CBS Evening News w/ Kat-ie Couric. After the final human interest segment she signs off to the contributing reporter with, "Enjoy your first post-election weekend, I...

To answer the question of my headline, no CBS isn't joking. CBS is actually pretending that the Old Media must be "won over" by a President Obama. It makes one wonder just how much more the press can be in love with The One? As multiple studies have shown, the Old Media has been far more in Obama’s corner than not yet now CBS wants to pretend they are skeptical of Obama? Now CBS wants to act as if they will be tough on him unless he appeases them? I know I said CBS was serious with this report, but...

At the top of Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Russ Mitchell reported on location from Athens, Greece as part of the show’s ‘Destination Unknown’ series and managed to squeeze in this observation: "...coming here, also, meeting people on the street, Europeans, they're absolutely giddy about the election of Barack Obama. They're actually coming up to us and congratulating us, which is interesting. So Europe is reacting in that way." Later in the 8:30AM half hour, Mitchell returned to that observation: "As I said earlier in the broadcast, you get the sense being over here in Europe that the attitudes of...

At the end of Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, an emotional Harry Smith declared: "I don't know how else to say this -- I grew up in a household that was not racially neutral. I grew up in a household where racial epithets were used commonly and with vigor. To see the difference in this country, in a country that I grew up in, so many people have said this is not something they thought they would ever see in their lifetime, and I wept tears of joy last night."

NEW YORK - A New York City judge says he wants to see documents that passed between a law firm and a panel CBS hired to investigate a Dan Rather story on President Bush. Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman told attorney David Versfelt on Wednesday to let him examine the papers so he can decide whether Rather's lawyers may see them. Versfelt's law firm was hired to advise the panel. Versfelt says the papers are protected by attorney-client privilege.

At the top of Thursday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Julie Chen praised Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American president but lamented the passage of California’s Proposition 8, preventing gay marriage: "One barrier falls, another returns. Married gays in legal limbo protest through the night as California voters ban same-sex unions." At the top of the 8AM hour, correspondent John Blackstone reported: "In disappointment, supporters of same-sex marriage gathered in Los Angeles last night, after the hard-fought campaign over California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, they were on the losing side, but not ready to give up." Blackstone went...

Network coverage of Palin has moved beyond criticism to outright ridicule. Strikingly, all three networks have repeatedly aired clips of Palin being parodied by a comedy show, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, leading to concerns that many Americans are confusing the real Palin with SNL’s figure of fun. When have comic impressions of a political figure ever qualified as hard news? CMI reviewed network news coverage of Palin for the two weeks beginning September 29 and ending October 12, the period before and after the October 2 vice-presidential debate. We found that ABC, NBC and CBS have been stridently critical of...

Mary Mapes is in gloat over-drive. Dan Rather's erstwhile producer, the woman behind Memogate, is beside herself with joy at what she sees as the impending death of the conservative blogosphere. It's her expectation that Barack Obama will win the presidency that has Mapes so hopeful. Annotated excerpts from her HuffPo column, The Monster is Dying [emphasis added]: * This whole thing is starting to feel a lot like the climactic death scene at the end of a 1950s monster movie. * Palin actually resembles that old monster movie staple -- the beautiful-but-bookish brunette working as a lab assistant for...

Wednesday’s CBS Early Show continued pressing the theme that the election is over as co-host Maggie Rodriguez declared: "Countdown to election day. The swing state showdown continues as Obama appears to open up an advantage in early voting." Co-host Harry Smith cited polls with wide margins to further shovel dirt on the McCain campaign: "New polls out with just 13 days to go until election day. A poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal gives Barack Obama a ten-point lead over John McCain, that's 52% to 42%. A poll by Reuters, C-Span, and Zogby shows the same...

This new CBS News/New York Times poll, which is being touted with a 14-POINT LEAD for Obama, up from THIREE POINTS in the same poll a week ago . . . IS A FRAUD! A peek into the "internals" of the Poll (that is - where the numbers come from) shows this fraud: Total Respondents 1070 UNWEIGHTED WEIGHTED Registered Voters 972 902 Democrats 371 338 Republicans 295 263 Independents 306 301 *Effective Likely Voters 699 *Every registered voter is included in the likely voter model, and is assigned a probability of voting, which is used to calculate the likely voter...

CBS News apparently had an October surprise of its own for President Bush. The network, already reeling from accusations of bias over anchorman Dan Rather's use of bogus memos to challenge Mr. Bush's Texas Air National Guard record, acknowledged yesterday in a statement that it had planned to air a story critical of the Bush administration's handling of Iraqi munitions Sunday on "60 Minutes," two days before the presidential election.

CBS News' : (NASHVILLE, TENN.) - After most of the previous 12 months covering Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, it was interesting, instructive and, well, relaxing to follow John McCain for the last few days. The differences between the two are striking. Obama is the big time orator, McCain is the guy who struggles with a teleprompter or even note cards strategically placed nearby. Obama's crowds are larger, more enthusiastic. McCain's events are smaller, but to my eye, better choreographed. And now with the addition of Sarah Palin to some of his events, McCain can boast of crowds that...

It started out 16 months ago as a mortgage crisis, and then slowly evolved into a credit crisis. Now it's something entirely different and much more serious.

ERS is still wondering, if its illegal to bring in “looted” items from Iraq, and someone has even been convicted of a crime for doing so -- why is it O-K for Lara Logan to be displaying a few of those same kind of items framed on her office walls at CBS News and have public media stories done about them without any US Customs people paying attention?. We don’t know yet for sure, but we’ll stay on the story until we find out!

Sarah Palin Was Annoyed During Interviews With Katie Couric By Noel Sheppard Created 2008-10-04 16:06 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin admitted Friday that she was annoyed during her interviews with CBS's Katie Couric because she felt the "Evening News" anchor missed a lot of opportunities to discuss issues "that Americans want to hear about." Having taken a lot of criticism from Obama-loving media members about her performance during these interviews, Palin met with Fox News's Carl Cameron Friday to clear the air about why she appeared a tad ill at ease with Couric (video embedded right, relevant section at 2:25):...

<p>CBS news hottie Lara Logan could be in hot water for swiping souvenirs from the wreckage of bombed-out Baghdad.</p> <p>In a video profile of the "60 Minutes" star called "Lara Logan's Spoils of War," mementos from Iraq and Afghanistan are shown in her Washington office.</p>

CBS news hottie Lara Logan could be in hot water for swiping souvenirs from the wreckage of bombed-out Baghdad. In a video profile of the "60 Minutes" star called "Lara Logan's Spoils of War," mementos from Iraq and Afghanistan are shown in her Washington office. "The prize pieces are . . . pre-Iraq invasion portraits of Saddam Hussein. In one [he's] shown in military fatigues. Logan told us she found it in pieces, in the ruins of the Olympic committee building after it was bombed," reports Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable, the media industry publication that produced the online...

Feds eye CBS steamer Lara Logan 'war crimes'. In upcoming online vid profile of the CBS correspondent Lara Logan's Spoils of War mementoes from her steamy days and nights in Iraq and Afghanistan are proudly displayed in her Washington office. "The prize pieces are pre-Iraq invasion portraits of Saddam Hussein," reports Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable, the media industry pub producing the online streamer

The New York Times fails to put the polling metrics on its website, but CBS News did. Surprise, surprise. They sampled the following self-identified voters: Republican: 362 out of 1257 respondents Democrat: 396 out of 1257 respondents Independents: 355 out of 1257 respondents They "re-weighted" the sample for the "results" as follows: Republicans:312 Democrats: 380 Independent:328 So apparently not satisfied with oversampling Democrats in the first instance, they re-weighted it to reflect even more Democrats. For those wondering, in the 2004 election, Dems and Republicans were split at 37%, with indies making up about 26%. So if the ol' gray...

Katie Couric certainly set off a lot of buzz -- and a classic "Saturday Night Live" parody -- with her memorable interview with Gov. Sarah Palin. There's blogging speculation that CBS is holding back some devastating portion of the Palin interview. "Absolutely, positively not true," a CBS News spokeswoman said Tuesday. "A lot of buzz out there is not accurate." Couric interviewed Palin and presidential candidate John McCain on Monday's "CBS Evening News." Couric will offer another Palin installment from the campaign trail on Tuesday's broadcast, at 6:30 p.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. The "CBS Evening News" will present Palin and...

Yesterday, Katie spent a lot of the day in Columbus, Ohio, on the campaign trail with Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. At a campaign rally, Palin said: "I do look forward to Thursday night and debating Sen. Joe Biden. We are going to talk about those new ideas, new energy for America. I'm looking forward to meet him too. I've never met him before. But, I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, 2nd grade." And Katie hung out with Palin behind the campaign scenes later in...

Sorry for the vanity. Just watched the Palin Couric interview and I am concerned. First, I think Palin was an inspired VP choice, gave a great convention speech, and did well under adverse conditions in the Gibson interview. Second, even though I thought she was awful during the Couric debate, I believe she would make a very good President. Many people who are unaware of a candidiate's accomplishments and record, will judge a person's fitness for office based on how they "come across" during an interview or debate. While I think that the substance of what someone says can reflect...

SJReidhead over at the Pink Flamingo notes why Sarah Palin came off so incoherent in those CBS News interviews with Katie Colic - Palin’s responses where edited to make her appear to stumble: “…(2:58) Couric: What, specifically, in your view, could be done to convince the new government in Pakistan to take a harder, tougher line against terrorists in that country? Palin: At a time when new leadership comes in, that is the opportunity to forge better, tighter, more productive relationships and that’s what we’ll take advantage of with new leadership in the US and in Pakistan. And I’m sure...

CBS News executives were red- faced yesterday trying to explain how David Letterman used unaired news footage of Sen. John McCain with Katie Couric to embarrass the Republican presidential candidate. McCain canceled his appearance on Letterman's show late Wednesday, several hours before he was due to appear - claiming he had to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis.

Ms. Couric reminded the governor that she recently met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who supports direct diplomacy with both countries. “Are you saying Henry Kissinger is naïve?” Ms. Couric asked. Ms. Palin replied, “I’ve never heard Henry Kissinger say, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met.’ ”

Source link. When is a train wreck not a train wreck? Well, in the case of Gov. Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric on CBS, when Ms. Palin’s staunchest defenders are looking at it. Take Free Republic, which calls itself “the premier online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the Web.” It has some of the most passionate right-wing bloggers out there. If the comments on this thread, from Friday morning, are any indication, the “Freepers” of Freerepublic.com had a completely different take than many other people who watched the interview. We’ve deleted some of the comments in the...

(Sept. 26, 2008) "Couric Diminishes Gov. Palin" Media elites are deliberately trying to hide Palin's experience by refusing to call her governor: Quote: CBS News anchor Katie Couric ordered staff to drop all references to "Governor" or "Gov." from her interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. When a staff member pointed out that in other venues, Couric and CBS News had referred to Governor Palin's opponent, Joe Biden, using his title of "Senator" or the abbreviation, Couric, according to a CBS News editorial aide, sought approval from CBS News management to drop the "Governor" reference during her broadcast interview with...

CBS News & Katie Couric, in a never ending attempt to belittle Republican Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin, ordered it’s staff to diminish Sarah’s importance.

Couric Diminishes Gov. Palin By The Prowler Published 9/26/2008 12:08:10 AM CBS New anchor Katie Couric ordered staff to drop all references to "Governor" or "Gov." from her interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. When a staff member pointed out that in other venues, Couric and CBS News had referred to Governor Palin's opponent, Joe Biden, using his title of "Senator" or the abbreviation, Couric, according to a CBS News editorial aide, sought approval from CBS News management to drop the "Governor" reference during her broadcast interview with Palin that began on Wednesday night. "It's not true," said another CBS...

From the CBS News transcript of Palin’s interview with Katie Couric: Next, Couric asked about the $700 billion government bailout of bad debt - and whether she supports it. Palin: I’m all about the position that America is in and that we have to look at a $700 billion bailout. When I read that passage I thought: Jeez, what a ditz. I’m, like, all about the position America’s in, fer shure!Except, that’s not what she said. I just watched it, and she said: I’m ill about the position that America is in and that we have to look at a...

NBC just played a CBS clip of Palin with Couric! Unbelieveable! Absolutely disgusting.

Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS is getting whittled down like a redwood at an Alabama beaver party. A Manhattan judge yesterday threw out two more of Rather's claims against the network, including his charge that his former bosses committed fraud by falsely promising to help restore his reputation after he became a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's military career. "We are extremely gratified that the court has now dismissed the vast majority of Mr. Rather's claims," CBS said in a statement. Rather's lawyer, Martin Gold, said that despite Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman's ruling striking...

A New York state Supreme Court judge Monday limited the scope of Dan Rather's $70-million lawsuit against CBS Corp., tossing out his claims that the network committed fraud and unlawfully interfered with his contract in his final months at the news division. But Justice Ira Gammerman allowed Rather to proceed with his claims that CBS broke the terms of his contract and breached its fiduciary duty by sidelining him in the wake of a controversial story about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. The ruling "allows us to prove everything we need to prove to a jury,"...

If Katie Couric is to be consistent and treat Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin,whom Couric is scheduled to interview this week, as gently as she did Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden in her day with him Thursday in Ohio which became a story on the Monday night CBS Evening News, she will (Couric quotes from the Biden story in the parentheses): Ignore obvious factual/historical flubs: (Biden: “When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television...”) FDR was not in office at the time of the 1929 crash and his "fireside chats" were on the radio.

(CBS) Both presidential candidates agree the nation is in a recession. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, appearing in separate interviews for a special 40th anniversary edition of 60 Minutes, say the economic term applies to the current troubles and lay out their plans to solve the situation if they are elected. Their interviews will be broadcast this Sunday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. "Oh, I think there's no doubt that…when the numbers come out, that we are officially in recession," Obama tells Steve Kroft. "I think, for a lot of people, they've been feeling like...

The CBS television network battled it out with the Marine Corps Wednesday morning at the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. The fight is over outtakes from a 60 Minutes interview with a Marine sergeant accused of killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq. Lawyers representing the three sides (the Marine Corps, CBS and SSgt Frank Wuterich) told the five-judge panel why, and why not, the Marine Corps should be entitled to video recordings the news program didn’t use. The interview was conducted by correspondent Scott Pelley for the 60 Minutes investigation, "The Killings in Haditha". It...

SECOND DEGREE KATIE GETS TWO DAYS WITH PALIN. NBC GETS COLD MOOSE STEW. By DON KAPLAN Last updated: 12:53 pmSeptember 18, 2008 Posted: 2:53 amSeptember 18, 2008 *snip* Couric is slated to spend two days on the road with the Republican vice presidential candidate and presidential hopeful John McCain. The material she gathers will be aired Sept. 29 and 30 on the "CBS Evening News" and "The Early Show" - just before the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate between Palin and Democrat Joe Biden.ABC's Charlie Gibson had the first in-depth network interview with Palin last week, but his handling of...

Katie Couric will spend two days traveling on the campaign trail with Governor Sarah Palin on Sunday, September 28 and Monday, September 29, conducting an exclusive interview to be broadcast on the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC beginning Monday (29). ... The interview will take place just days before the Vice Presidential debate between Palin and Senator Joe Biden in St. Louis on Thursday, October 2. ...

Is Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s campaign strategy “demeaning to women?” Yes, according to CBS’s Bob Schieffer, because the McCain camp is selective about when and where GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin makes media appearances Schieffer, the host of CBS’s Sunday morning public affairs program, “Face the Nation,” appeared at Politics & Prose, a bookstore in Washington, D.C. on September 15 to promote his newest book, “Bob Schieffer’s America.” Schieffer, who is scheduled to moderate the last presidential debate between Obama and McCain, on October 15th, called it the McCain campaign’s “obligation” to make Alaska Gov. Palin available to...

The true extent to which Palin-mania has come to dominate the TV news cycle hit home for me last night as I flipped through the channels on the Palin campaign’s charter flight from Reno to Denver. Within a period of about a half hour, I caught the much-anticipated debut of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night,” as well as seperate Palin documentaries on MSNBC and CNN. Tina Fey was such a dead ringer for Palin that I was tempted to open the curtains that separate the governor and her staff from the media to make sure she was...

CBS News has jumped into the middle of the presidential race, forcing YouTube to take down a Web ad by John McCain’s campaign that the network calls “misleading” in its use of Katie Couric. The ad, entitled “Lipstick,” accuses Barack Obama of calling McCain running mate Sarah Palin a lipstick-wearing pig. It features at the end a quote from Couric bemoaning the “continued and accepted role of sexism in American life.” Couric at the time was referring to Democratic primary coverage of Sen. Hillary Clinton. The ad ends with a picture of Obama and a caption reading, “Ready to lead?...