Posted on 09/16/2004 2:49:01 PM PDT by NewMediaFan
NEW YORK Sept. 16, 2004 — CBS News is trying to restore its credibility after a week of questions about its report on President Bush's National Guard service yet it may never conclusively know whether it was duped by fake documents.
The news division has acknowledged for the first time questions about the authenticity of documents used to support the story, and it has promised a stepped-up effort to get at the truth.
"They could have saved themselves a good deal of negative publicity and attacks if they had said that from the beginning," said Charlotte Grimes, a Syracuse University professor with a specialty in political reporting.
Internet watchdogs were the first to raise questions about last week's report, and CBS anchor Dan Rather's critics have been buzzing ever since.
An editorial cartoon in the Birmingham News pictured a dour-looking Rather saying on camera, "There is not an anti-Bush media bias. And here's a memo to prove it."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
How can See BS "restore" its credibility when it never had any in the first place?
CBS. We distort. You decide.
Like CBS has any credibility left to lose.
It might as well say Prostitutes are fighting to restore their virginity.
No. They are fighting to find a lie that works in an attempt to stop their freefall. If they really cared about regaining credibility, they would fire Dan Rather, purge their news division, and come clean. I won't expect to see that happen any time soon.
Should state Pajama Warriors were the first to
Conclusive?!?! Conclusive?!?!?! For a man who lived by the phrases 'may have', 'could be', 'almost certain', Mr. Rather is a little late to worrry about conclusive. But he who lives by the fake, dies by the fake.
Stop wahtcing all CBS shows until Dan Rather is fired!!!!
"Wet but dry."
"Black but white."
"Right but wrong."
"Funny but named Jerry Lewis."
Duped is not the word I was thinking of, more like "Complicit".
Ahhahahahaha!!! ROFL!!!
It's not the validity of the evidence that matters but the seriousness of the charges according to daper Dan.
Sorry but your gawd awful standards of reporting and agenda pushing penchant has been exposed.
Top ten ways CBS can restore its credibility, anyone?
Brave but French.
Prosperous but socialist.
They knew this was a fake story and that the documents were fake.
They are guilty of felonies.
This progression is entertaining...but it is too little, too late. The reality of CBS was that they became the "Communist Broadcasting System" quite a while back, as did the majority of the MSMs accomplices.
The "fake but accurate" billing is more BS and subterfuge again just to have an excuse to avoid talking about Kerry's record..the timing of all this is just too perfect -- otherwise it would have come up a long time ago. We proved the docs are fake which was easy. Now let them PROVE it is accurate. (chuckle). But what difference does it make --- the issues are the issues.
And Kerry won't get near them, because they all lead back to exactly what he is...and that must be hidden from the "useful idiots". (Thank you Marx).
Top ten ways CBS can restore its credibility
1. On-air beheading of Dan Rather.
Too good. Wish I'd hit that one.
Credibility, and a ratings winner!
It would seem that Rather is getting some good satisfaction out of making the White House squirm and twist and contort on this, so I can't imagine that he showed ALL he was going to show just last night.
Dear CBS News and Dan Rather: THANK YOU !!! Thank you for standing up to the misinformation that is being presented to the American people on a daily basis from the White House and every level of government. As I news junkie, it has been disturbing to watch the decline of journalistic integrity.
I thanked him and told him I was a typewriter repairman and that the doc's looked authentic to me.
We love you Dan, and a large group of us here are rooting for you (we're all Deaniacs....so you know how intensely we feel about cleaning up the media!) I think you are displaying genuine integrity, and it is this we admire above and beyond whatever the final validity of these documents turns out to be. We trust you, (at the moment, ha!) because of this integrity, and so much of America is aching for this right now!
With CBS acting like the only broadcast media with a spine, I'll wager the far right is afraid of what else they may have found. Keep in mind that the opposition seeks to destroy the messenger, not the message. Witness the focus on the authenticity of paper and ink, rather than the information contained.
I truly appreciate the integrity CBS News has shown in covering these recent stories regarding Mr. Bush's National Guard duty.
Here is my take on this....CBS has the originals, Rove sent the fakes to Rather, Rather knows these are fakes, but these fakes are being used to smoke out Rove. I find it strange that Rather would interview the secretary on his program for her to say she thought these documents were forgeries. Actually, Rather asked her more then once about the forgeries, then she mentions a diary. Maybe CBS has the diary. Although the secretary verified the information I think Rather is too smart to know this is not enough after all he has been investigating this for four or five years. I think Rather wants to prove that Rove sent these so called papers to him -- he is giving every opportunity to allow Rove and company to say these papers are forgeries. My impression he was emphasizing the papers were forgeries just as much as the contents. He also knows there are some documents missing -- proof now the WH has more documents available after I don't know how many times, they keep saying they turned them all over but all of a sudden more are found. When interviewing the secretary Rather was very confident (almost smug). I believe he is holding a lot back. Go Dan Rather!
the docs he's allowing to be broadcast probably are fake in an effort to trip up bushco, but I doubt that Viacom's lawyers would let him go to air with bullshit and risk the financial hit to the stockholders. There is too much money at stake to be that reckless. And Rather isn't like the cable-cabal... innuendo, insinuation and speculation passing for evidence... We don't know all there is to know, so it's too soon to be howling about fakes---Rather hasn't tipped his hand yet.
i suspect that these forgeries are, in fact, forgeries. i suspect that they were leaked by the GOP in order to create the belief that CBS is untrustworthy on not only this issue, but any others in which they have criticized the administration in the past. this all just seems way too intentional to me.
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