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The forged memos are an ironic parallel to Watergate. In '72, White House "plumber" E. Howard Hunt was involved in an effort to discredit JFK by linking the dead president to the 1963 assassination of Pres. Diem of South Vietnam. The reason this was relevant in 1972 (at least to Nixonian thinking) was that brother Ted was still a potential candidate, and dirt thrown at his brother might stick to him. Anyway, like those Democrats pushing the "AWOL" meme, Hunt found the documentary evidence lacking in some regards. He had access to State Department memos and cables, but there were...

The Dan Rather Memogate scandal and the Kerry campaign's resorting to blatantly hysterical scare tactics -- claiming that President Bush will privatize Social Security, bring back the draft, increase global warming, withhold flu shots from elderly Democrats, and conspire with the Saudis and the Masons in order to establish the Halliburton Corporation as the world's sole superpower -- is indicative of a condescending attitude that seems to afflict most of the people whose jobs involve either making bad movies even worse or writing articles for journals of thought that are largely devoid of same. What I'm talking about is that...

Like many of you, I've noticed a lot of posts mentioning Fox News' "move to the left."

Alan Skorski is a hero, cant wait to read his Franken book...This is too good to be true. Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 9:57 a.m. EDT Dan Rather: CBS's Michael Moore Could it be that "CBS Evening News" anchorman Dan Rather has lower journalistic standards than even Michael Moore, whose conspiracy film "Fahrenheit 9/11" may be a model piece of political propaganda, but doesn't come close to qualifying as "journalism"? Last week the web site Ratherbiased.com quote Moore saying he rejected the same forged military records Rather used in his disastrous Sept. 8 broadcast to trash President Bush. "Back when I...

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HALPERINGATE = RATHERGATE = WATERGATE: The Nexus Halperin Memo Dated Friday October 8, 2004 It goes without saying that the stakes are getting very high for the country and the campaigns - and our responsibilities become quite grave I do not want to set off (sp?) and endless colloquy that none of us have time for today - nor do I want to stifle one. Please respond if you feel you can advance the discussion. The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions...

ABC News was under fire last night after an internal memo surfaced suggesting President Bush should be held more accountable for his statements than John Kerry. The memo to staffers from the network's powerful political director, Marc Halperin, noted that while both campaigns are distorting the truth, Kerry's bending of the facts shouldn't be hit as hard. "Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win," Halperin wrote. But "the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes...

Britt on Fox just told about all the violence to Bush/Cheney HQ and now talking about the Dem spammer debate e-mails..YAY BRIT

Reviewing the media drool over the debate last night, I found a peculiar page on cBS' website. It has a quote in two locations on the page that says, "In the horse race, Kerry now leads Mr. Bush among uncommitted debate watchers by 38-28 percent as their choice for president in November." Two issue I have with that statement. First, their own poll statistics, on the same page, show the numbers to actually be 38-31. So they've decided to just tell readers something completely different than their own poll numbers show. Instead of a 7 point lead, they tell us...

PBS host Jim Lehrer was challenged Friday morning on claims that he went easy on Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate, while tossing verbal hand grenades in President Bush's direction designed to keep him on the defensive. PBS host Jim Lehrer was challenged Friday morning on claims that he went easy on Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate, while tossing verbal hand grenades in President Bush's direction designed to keep him on the defensive. "I don't know what in the world you're talking about," Lehrer told radio host Don Imus, in his only post-debate interview. "I...

CBS News is again under fire for a story which aired Tuesday evening by CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger purporting to compare the views of President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry on the possibility of reinstituting the military draft. "It's no secret, the all-volunteer U.S. military, especially the Army, Marines, and many Reserve units, are stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan," CBS News anchor Dan Rather said leading into the segment. "So what about bringing back the draft? A lot of Americans are worried about that. Where do the presidential candidates stand?" The story was presented as part...

Last night after doing some research, I sent an email to Beverly Cocco concerning the CBS interview on her concerns about the draft: Beverly, I read the article about you posted on the CBS news website "The Issues: Reviving The Draft," after having seen a link to it on a conservative website, FreeRepublic.com. I did a search, and found that you are involved with a group called Parents Against the Draft and People against the draft. http://www.nodraft.info/ The website of People Against the Draft appears to be a non-partisan effort, and I fully support your right to be an advocate...

It appears that the court struck down the part of the Patriot Act that allows Agents to issue Non-Binding Subpoenas to businesses that would be willing to comply but need something official on paper. The radio story reports that it would stop businesses from complying with the a command without a judge's order. I bet the story (and perhaps the high court) got it wrong. I bet these are not true subpoenas - businesses could not be forced to obey them.

Five weeks before the election, CBS decided to give legitimacy to Internet rumors by devoting a "What Does It Mean to You?" segment to "fears" of a supposedly Bush-supporting mother that President Bush will impose a military draft. Dan Rather intoned: "A mother worries her son will be drafted. Does she have good reason?" Richard Schlesinger focused his piece around how the mother "is petrified about a military draft, and she's not alone. Mass e-mails are circulating among worried parents." Schlesinger pointed out how both Bush and Kerry deny that they'd institute a draft, but the mother is "not buying...

In asking Louis Boccardi (search), the former head of AP, to help lead its investigation into those now discredited documents, CBS was calling on an old friend of Dan Rather (search), who sat with Boccardi at a party honoring his retirement last year and gave a glowing tribute to Boccardi at the event. People who know Boccardi, however, say he will be impartial in conducting the investigation.

Daniel Irvin Rather must be a masochist. You'd think that in the midst of the terrible publicity he is currently getting for working closely with a partisan Democrat bent on bringing down President Bush that Dan Rather would have the good sense to lay off the liberal bias for a while. But common sense seems to be in short supply at CBS News these days. Three weeks after he denounced the internet as being "filled with rumors," the embattled CBS anchor ran a story on his Tuesday "Evening News" program hoping to stir up fear of an impending military draft....

September 28, 2004 20:41:03 EDT Daniel Irvin Rather must be a masochist. You'd think that in the midst of the terrible publicity he is currently getting for working closely with a partisan Democrat bent on bringing down President Bush that Dan Rather would have the good sense to lay off the liberal bias for a while. But common sense seems to be in short supply at CBS News these days. Three weeks after he denounced the internet as being "filled with rumors," the embattled CBS anchor ran a story on his Tuesday "Evening News" program hoping to stir up fear...

Pondering when Dan Rather will swing Timing is everything as CBS looks for an out Months before Richard Nixon's resignation, as he was facing impeachment, a "60 Minutes" commentator compared the president to a dead mouse on the kitchen floor of America. The only issue, observed Nicholas von Hoffman, was who was going to pick him up by the tail and toss him into the trash. CBS executives, much lathered by Von Hoffman's effrontery, booted him from his post as a regular commentator. These 30 years later, CBS executives are in a new lather over another Republican president, and they're...

Lokisfur has been hearing all these talking heads on the networks and in the liberal pap media talk about the liberal "mindset" at CBS as a contributing and exonerating factor in the the Rathergate scandal. But what is this Liberal mindset toward President George Bush: I'll spell it out: 1) The President should be known as "The Prez" and play to the lowest common denominator and go on MTV, and play sax on Leno, hang out with reporters on the back of AirForce One and shmooze them so they will love him. The Prez should have sex with anyone he...

Dan Rather's acknowledgment that he erred in broadcasting a recent "60 Minutes'' report about President Bush's National Guard service has further complicated two of the most delicate questions in television news: when will Mr. Rather relinquish the anchor chair of "The CBS Evening News,'' and to whom? CBS has never disclosed a timetable for replacing Mr. Rather, who turns 73 next month and who has been the anchor of the nightly news since March 1981. But in the weeks before Sept. 8, when the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes'' broadcast its report based on documents it now says cannot be...

<p>CBS PLANS FOR SPRING RATHER RETIREMENT (headline at drudge now...</p>

Lokisfur asks: How come there is no federal criminal investigation into the CBS memos? We now have forged US military records that

Earlier this week, amid controversy over the validity of the recently released documents saying President Bush skirted his military duty in Texas, CBS News said they can now longer confirm that the memos from Col. Jerry Killian are real. Questions have abounded since the release of the documents two weeks ago that were allegedly from the last Texas Air National Guard Colonel Jerry Killian, who said that he gave President George W. Bush preferential treatment in the guard and in making up lost flight hours. On Monday night's CBS Evening News, anchor Dan Rather apologized for the "mistake" and that...

Dan Rather is what is wrong with contemporary journalism in the USA and in Europe. He is an arrogant partisan hack masquerading as a legitimate journalist who uses his posiiton and contacts to berate one side instead of seeking any semblance of the truth in real issues. Sadly, my respect for "60 Minutes" has long since dissolved because of people like him. The guy reminds me of the pseudo-intellectual Noam Chomsky or the blathering moron Michael Moore, who see a conservative conspiracy behind every tree, and conveniently ignores facts. Rather should do the journalistic profession an immense favor and instead...

Rather is Neither Accurate or Fair After watching Dan Rather trash bloggers, who turned out to be authentic and accurate about the now discredited story of the Killian memos concerning George W. Bush, one has to ask the obvious question about Rather’s bias. Why are those who contradict his story or those who openly support Bush labeled as partisan operatives and ignored as unreliable while sources who are openly supporting Kerry and against Bush like Lt. Col. Burkett and Ms. Knox are “unimpeachable” sources? Rather deserves to be fired for a number of reasons, but the most obvious is that...

Lokisfur asks: How come there is no federal criminal investigation into the CBS memos? We now have forged US military records that were aimed at undermining the US election process and bringing down the President of the United States .

It's pretty funny to see Dan Rather squirming right now. The right wing nuts, as he calls them, Have been asked to head up an investigation of CBS news. I, personally find this to be ironic. The conservatives he hates so much are going to be the ones he answers to for the duration of the investigation.

From "Kerry's Brain," an article by Ken Auletta in The New Yorker: Page 67: "Last week, the Vietnam War became an issue again. Democrats seized upon new evidence that seemed to show that George W. Bush had used political influence to be assigned to the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."

<p>Former National Guard commander Bill Burkett has become the first player in the CBS forged document scandal to implicate John Kerry's presidential campaign, telling the Fort Worth Star Telegram that top Kerry aide Joe Lockhart pressed him to turn over damaging evidence on George Bush.</p>

<p>The source of a disputed CBSNEWS report claimed Thursday that Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart tried to "convince me as to why I should give them the documents." Texas Army National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett tells the FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM that he has suffered four seizures since being identified as CBS' source and dogged by the media... Developing...</p>

An examination of the timeline of publicly-reported events leading up to the Rathergate scandal raises some interesting questions about possible as-yet unrevealed collusion among Bill Burkett, members of the national press corps, and the Kerry campaign. Someone other than CBS and Burkett appears to have known about the phony documents, and spread the word quietly, in preparation for a massive coordinated campaign to discredit President Bush.....

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh spoke in Oakland Wednesday night. Thornburgh was part of a panel discussion on global issues sponsored in part by ABC News and the World Affairs Council. He did comment on his new job, investigating the "60 Minutes" documents scandal for CBS News. Channel 4 Action News anchor Scott Baker got Thornburgh's first reaction and asked about one possible conflict. "Generally you comment on investigations after they're over, not before they start," said Thornburgh. But when you're tasked with sorting through a journalistic scandal of such visibility, you will be asked. Thornburgh continued, "Well I don't...

According to the CBS News web site, tonight's CBS Evening News will address the latest developments in Rathergate. Let's pile on.

Washington, DC--Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie issued the following statement on CBS’s admission today that memos regarding the President’s National Guard service are not real. “We accept CBS's apology for a breach of the journalistic standards that provide the American people confidence in news organizations, but some disturbing questions remain unanswered. “CBS has now answered questions about the authenticity of the documents but questions remain surrounding who created the documents, who provided them to CBS and if Senator Kerry's supporters, Party committee, or campaign played any role. “Did Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, who passed information...

September 14, 2004--Twenty-seven percent (27%) of voters believe that the CBS Memos concerning President Bush's National Guard service are authentic. However a Rasmussen Reports survey also found that 38% believe the memos are forgeries. Among voters who are following the story very closely, 56% believe the memos are forgeries and 27% believe they are authentic. Overall, 38% of voters say they are following the story "very" closely and 34% say they are following it "somewhat" closely. Only 16% of voters think questions about President Bush's National Guard service are "very" important. That view is held by 27% of Democrats, 13%...

Sept. 27 issue - CBS insiders are increasingly worried that the credibility of the network's news division has been grievously damaged by anchor Dan Rather's persistent defense of a story which relied on questionable documents about George W. Bush's National Guard service. "This has clearly hurt us," one veteran correspondent told NEWSWEEK. Network sources describe finger-pointing within the news division, with concerns greatest among "60 Minutes" producers, who fear the issue has tainted their entire program. While CBS News president Andrew Heyward has publicly backed Rather, the network has quietly assembled a team of additional producers to work the case....