CBSNEWS LAUNCHES INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AFTER SUSPICIOUS BUSH DOCS AIRED (drudge Siren)

Drudge ^ | 9/9/2004 | drudge

[Keith in Iowa]

CBSNEWS LAUNCHES INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AFTER SUSPICIOUS BUSH DOCS AIRED

Nothig more yet...

**********More***

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU SEPT 09, 2004 22:45:32 ET XXXXX

CBSNEWS LAUNCHES INTERNAL INVESTIGATION AFTER SUSPICIOUS BUSH DOCS AIRED

**Exclusive**

CBS NEWS executives have launched an internal investigation into whether its premiere news program 60 MINUTES aired fabricated documents relating to Bush's National Guard service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

"The reputation and integrity of the entire news division is at stake, if we are in error, it will be corrected," a top CBS source explained late Thursday.

The source, who asked not to be named, described CBSNEWS anchor and 60 MINUTES correspondent Dan Rather as being privately "shell-shocked" by the increasingly likelihood that the documents in question were fraudulent.

Rather, who anchored the segment presenting new information on the president's military service, will personally correct the record on-air, if need be, the source explained from New York.

MORE

[MindBender26]

NY Post will be all over this tomorrow.... big time!!!

[I got the rope]

Yep...the real pics are the best.

[My2Cents]

"Internal investigation" -- considering this is CBS, would this be a proctology exam?

[mdittmar]

Look what you have wrought.

Thanks.

[Cicero]

I read somewheres...but have NO idea..that NIGHTLINE will cover this tonite..are they on, because of the football game..OMG..the NFL started tonight..

I gather from other posts that Nightline was planning to run a story tonight backing up the 60 Minutes attack on Bush. Now that that plan has obviously fallen apart, the question is whether they will simply drop the program and do something else, or whether they will drastically revise it so it has pretty much the opposite effect of what they were originally planning to do.

[atomicpossum]

Have you heard any reports of her statements in the media?

A post here.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>NY Post will be all over this tomorrow.... big time!!!

Somehow, they'll try and paint it as a Karl Rove dirty trick...

[idkfa]

Don't let them get away with just an apology, demand the resignation of Rather and everyone else involved. Time to ratchet the outrage up.

[Steel Wolf]

I think they were so gleeful that they thought that they had the goods on Bush that they didn't even consider that they could be fakes. It is typical. If something comes out against Kerry they look under every crevice to see if they can plausibly deny it. If anything bad comes out against Bush they run with it.

I think you're exactly right. This overt partisanship will wind up hurting the Democrats more than it will help, because it exposes their bias, and exposes them as either liars or fools.

The problem for Rather and his kind is simple. The Old Media has lost the ability to control information in America. They've also shed any vestige of neutrality. Being deceptively partisan only works when there are no consequences for lying. In 2004, there are.

Trying to spin and bury stories like the Swift Boat Vets is the best they can hope for anymore. Passive, perhaps, but effective. Clearly, it backfired mightily when they tried to take their poorly scripted lies on the offensive. With amatuer stunts like this, the Old Media goons are hammering nails into their own coffins.

If they stick to trying to subtly influence public opinion, these dinosaurs may be able to roam for some time. They are starting to realize that with every venture out into overt partisanship, they can expect to encounter a New Media that has grown stronger with every victory.

[biggiepaul]

Im not trying to be negative, but do have any of you tin-foilers suspected some Rove fingerprints on this debacle? If this turns out to be a forgery, this story is going to be a big hit to the press trumpeting national guard stories.

[arasina]

whew. Sorry it took me so long. I didn't post to the thread so it took me a few minutes to find it in my browser history.

Here ya go: CBS News denies Bush docs forged (then calls back to back off of earlier "expert" claim)

[ken5050]

She just won the lottery...she can sue CBS big time..I know a lawyer in Texas, John O'Neill, might just take the case...

[Semi Civil Servant]

I wonder if this will cause NBC to rethink their Kitty Kelley Krapfest next week...

You'd think so. But Today is so compromised that they may not care that Kitty is pre-discredited.

[Owl558]

Time to hit their sponsors FReepers!

[Cboldt]

This will give the impression that false information is OK with them and perhaps part of their MO.

And that would be an accurate impression. Deceptive presentation is their stock in trade.

[John Jorsett]

Maybe they can air the retraction from an exploding pickup truck, just to tweak NBC news.

[dangus]

No, Hugh is 20/20; this is Morley!

[I'm ALL Right!]

Blather's Apology:

"It has come to our attention, here at CBS, that the documents we hoped would be the nail in Bush's coffin were forgeries. We're really very sorry they were not true. We're even more sorry the world found out about that. We're sorry we didn't have any REAL dirt on President Bush. We're sorry that Kerry is such a weak candidate. We're sorry that none of the mud we continue to throw at the President seems to be sticking. We're sorry, we're sorry, we're SO sorry."

[CurlyDave]

CBS was absolutely complicit in this fraud.

Any number of amateurs have pointed out the glaring inconsistencies in the documents presented as authentic.

When Dan Rather makes a public retraction & apology for this incredible stupidity, he needs to get to the meat of the story.

Where did these documents come from?

Who who gave them to CBS?

Who was the forger?

What was the motive?

They need a whole episode of 60 minutes devoted to nothing but the history of this.

[Geronimo]

The magnitude of their mistake is unbelievable, they are trying to take down a sitting President. To impugn the integrity of the Commander in Chief with crude forged memoes during this time of war against international terror is inexcusable.

Dan Rather needs to go. Compare the CBS coverage of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the coverage of this bullshit story, I sometimes think I'm living in the twighlight zone, I really do. How do they keep getting away with this?