Posted on 09/15/2004 6:16:28 AM PDT by OESY
...CBS has dismissed calls for an internal investigation into its reporting of the story, arguing that it was thoroughly reviewed before broadcast. "I'm confident in the process of vetting that got the story on air. When we say we continue to report the story you can be sure we're being conscientious in responding to these allegations," says CBS News President Andrew Heyward. CBS may offer further evidence in support of its story as early as today.
The stakes are high for "60 Minutes," the undisputed gold standard in television news.... Its longtime producer, Don Hewitt, 81, has retired unenthusiastically, and its correspondents are aging. Mike Wallace is 86; Morley Safer is 72. Mr. Rather, who himself is 72, is lead correspondent for the "60 Minutes" Wednesday edition.
All broadcast-news executives are under siege.... Just last month cable upstart Fox News Channel beat the three broadcasters head-to-head in coverage of the Republican convention, in the few hours that the networks bothered to cover it at all. Ratings for the evening news programs continue to slide while the morning shows and newsmagazines often seem more focused on entertainment stories, true crime and corporate synergy. As Mr. Rather and CBS have been taking heat this week, NBC's "Today" has been offering three days of interviews with author Kitty Kelley about her gossipy Bush-bashing tome, "The Family."
"Network news is diminished," says Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the think tank Project for Excellence in Journalism....
..."I think CBS definitely made an error in saying there is no investigation needed because if they had done the opposite and said 'of course we're investigating,' it would have bought them time and would have at least acknowledged that certain transparencies in news organizations are becoming required," says Jay Rosen, chairman of New York University's Journalism Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
"That's the problem when you rely on days-old information from print journalism instead of immediately turning to FreeRepublic.com for Breaking News," said this unabashed supporter.
Ya think?!?
You don't say.
Yes, they could. Sort of like an asteroid the size of Antarcica could damage the earth's ecosystems.
As far as I am concerned, they lost their credibility a very long time ago.
OXYMORON ALERT!
Here is a copyright-ready cartoon for any use that's noncommercial... emails, signs, flyers, whatever
CBS? What "credibility"?
If I read something correctly yesterday it stated CBS viewers were up.
Strange world we live in or is it.
;-)
"Did someone write Forgeries "COULD" Damage CBS Credibility? "
WHAT credibility??? Wonder aside from the FREEPERS who watched how many Americans actually did watch???
Other than the liberals salivating and the FREEPERS who else would watch? Could it be that this is exactly the plan from the beginning, that somebody would call the documents forgeries? Maybe the only thing that did not go according to the plan was the speed with which the "forgeries" were outed and by whom.
The legal perimiter of journalism fraud are found in defamation and copyright law.
CBS is plowing precedent-setting ground here.
Well, remember when NBC did the story on how Chevy pickup gas tanks were dangerous, and it came out that NBC had been forced to use fireworks in their effort to show how easily they could explode?
Er, 'political partisan.'
= we continue to report the story . . . being conscientious in repeating the allegations [against Bush]
"CBS may offer further evidence in support of its story as early as today. "
hmmmmm
Wait a second. Isn't the Killian secretary "Mrs. Knox" 86? Could it be that the "source" is Mike Wallace in drag?
The sad thing is that they had any credibility in the first place.
Well, nobody else is. Perhaps some new blood is needed at CBS News, starting at the top. If so, it sounds like it would be the first new blood there since about 1970 - which perhaps not-so-coincidentally is when Kerry started making his name.
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