Fax# (212) 975-1998
Posted on 09/15/2004 1:11:05 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
CBS and "60 Minutes II" are sitting in an odd chair, in front of strange media lights, answering questions they are used to asking.
Network anchor Dan Rather is not making an interview subject squirm on national television.
He is making his CBS colleagues sweat behind the scenes.
One veteran correspondent told the New York Times, "I'm distressed." Another described the mood of the staff as one of "deep concern."
The distress and concern at CBS centers on "exclusive" information the network aired last week about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.
The information, based on four documents from a deceased squadron commander, purported to show that, among other things, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian was pressured to "sugar coat" Bush's performance rating.
Since the report aired, evidence has emerged suggesting the documents were forged. Family members and some document experts say the memos are fake. Piece by piece, the story is falling apart.
A retired investigative editor friend of mine is not surprised. Almost immediately after the story broke, Jim Savage recognized warning signs that CBS producers ignored.
"Right now, it's still very fuzzy," says Savage, 65, who retired from the Miami Herald earlier this year. "But if I had to bet, I'd say the story won't hold up."
Before I allow Savage to explain, let me tell you something about him.
He edited investigative projects at the Herald for approximately 20 years. Two of those projects — one on Iran-Contra, another on Hurricane Andrew — won Pulitzer Prizes.
He is best known, though, as the editor who helped expose the extramarital affair between former Sen. Gary Hart and Donna Rice.
Acting on an anonymous tip 17 years ago, Savage, current Herald Executive Editor Tom Fiedler and another reporter confronted Hart outside his Washington townhouse, which Rice was visiting.
That meeting led to a scandalous story, and Hart withdrew from the 1988 presidential race.
Now back to the current race.
After CBS reported that Killian wrote memos to himself about a discussion with Bush on how the future president could avoid "coming to drill," supporters of Sen. John Kerry accepted the report as gospel.
Not Savage. He sensed trouble.
"It's clear that CBS did a lot of work on this," Savage says, "but you have to start off with a basic question: Would a person commit something like this to writing? People don't normally do that.
"I don't write notes to myself and say, 'Gee, I did something wrong the other day.' You might write something like that to your wife."
As it turned out, Killian's widow later said that her husband did not write memos to himself.
There was something else that made Savage uneasy. Killian's son, Gary, said he had warned CBS that the memos were fake.
"If I was the editor and I had this family member telling me this," Savage says, "that would stop me right in my tracks.
"This guy is going to come out after the fact and say he warned us. That's a big red light flashing."
Another problem: CBS relied on a retired major general to authenticate the contents of the memos by telephone. Then the major general recanted. He says the documents are fake.
"When you talk about something like this on a phone, you create a weak witness," Savage says. "And weak witnesses tend to disappear."
Savage feels for Rather's distressed colleagues. I do, too. Investigative reporting is a little like jumping off one of those cliffs in Acapulco — thrilling and terrifying at the same time. One mistake and you're dead.
Savage and I have gone over the cliff together. We collaborated on investigative stories about vice and fraud in sports. Thanks to careful editing and Savage's exceptional instincts, we survived our many jumps.
But CBS looks like it has hit a rock below.
Good work by this San Antonio reporter. He actually interviewed new subjects and everything!
"drinking?"
Purple Kool Aid, no doubt...
Being from the area, I can tell you that the S.A.Excuse for News is liberally biased, so I'm suprised to see that even this short little piece made it into the paper. I never read the sorry thing, but I'm tempted to go fetch a copy to see how far back this piece is buried in the paper.
Let's put it this way. We'd get 20 inches of rain here, and the front page headline would be about how we're running out of water. The people just couldn't seem to vote down the Applewhite Reservoir enough times to shut them up.
From page 405 under heading "616. Deception - verbs" in Roget's International Thesaurus 3rd edn 1962...
You learn something new everyday, huh? :-)
No WAY that guy's name is really Nacho Guarache. Not a chance.
CBS tried to pull a fast one and got caught. Period.
The memos are obviously fraudulent. Dan Rather isn't so stupid as to knowingly -- oh, wait, I see your point.
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