Posted on 09/19/2004 10:13:53 PM PDT by Cableguy
ABC News' president has cautioned reporters that their mission in reporting on the CBS document story is not to stick it to a competitor.
ABC is hot on the story, breaking ground by unearthing a document examiner who warned a CBS producer of the Bush records’ questionable status, but nobody's gloating.
In a memo sent last week, ABC News President David Westin issued a directive for covering the allegedly forged memos cited on 60 Minutes.
“We need to stick as close to the facts and what we know about them as possible,” he wrote, because, noting, ABC could be in the hot seat next time. How best to sum up CBS’s dilemma? Westin chose to paraphrase Churchill: “When boys are throwing rocks at a frog, it may seem like good fun to the boys, but to the frog, it's serious business." While ABC may not be able to turn a frog into a prince, it is willing to vindicate a competitor. “If CBS News is wrong, we owe it to everyone to make the point; if they’re right, we owe it to everyone to make that point as well.”
Fox is Killing CBS softly. No huge HEADLINERS, but keeping the the finger on the noice button.
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ABC News, Barbara Walters, 2020@abc.com
ABC News, George Stephanopoulos, thisweek@abc.com
ABC News, Good Morning America, http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/GoodMorningAmeri...
ABC News, John Stossel, 2020@abc.com
ABC News, Nightline, nightline@abcnews.com
ABC News, Primetime Thursday, http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/2020/Prime...
ABC News, Ted Koppel, nightline@abc.com
ABC News, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/ThisWeek/ThisWeek/tw...
ABC News, World News Now overnight, http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/WorldNewsNow/wnn_email_...
ABC News, World News Tonight weekend, http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsSaturda...
ABC News, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight...
Mmm, I thought this was the policy across the board on every story. Why does this obvious fact have to be stated now? Is it because in the past you played free and loose with so called facts?
Pulitzer. Buckhead, TankerKC, and Howlin deserve a Pulitzer prize in journalism for exposing CBS' fraud far in advance of everyone else, back when the old guard news media was still touting CBS' story and forged docs as "real."
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And, as I said on a previous thread tonight:
(2) CBS may be a big financial rival to the other news networks, but electing a Democratic president outweighs any of those considerations.
Let me give you an example: Which president violated the very tenet that of his supporting organizations deem as despicable? That's right, Clinton (Clinton & "violation" go hand in hand). Which organization am I talking about? Yes, of course, NOW (you guys are sharp!).
Here, we had in office not just a philanderer, but one who abused his position of authority to exploit an intern and one who likely fondled and raped, etc. other women. You would have thought that Clinton would have no longer been NOW's posterboy; you thunk wrong.
Organizational principles that its members will die for all of a sudden become loose-gripped when even more precious worldviews (for NOW, it was abortion-on-demand) are at risk. What? You think women who have had abortions and encouraged millions of others to follow in their footsteps can live with pro-life reality? (No way, so reality has to be changed, even if it means submersing the reality of Clinton as a female predator).
Likewise, the opportunity for ABC or NBC to beat a news rival into the ground will be submissive to the ideology of electing a Democratic president.
So, don't you see how vital you investigative Free Bloggers are in an era of a media-in-bondage?
I think a more simple explanation is that the liberal viewers of ABC News were pissed that ABC News took such a hardline against CBS and a pro-Bush stance. It is my read that that is why they are backing off. Also, if ABC keeps this up and next time ABC screws up, CBS will be there to twist the knife.
Agree.
This cr*p from ABC is just code to the troops to back off and not follow the real story behind Rathergate.
That would seem to be the messege that Westin is sending.
How interesting. At the same time Rather and company will try and out the scapegoat...to protect the other Dems,
Westin sends the marching order to stop looking into the story.
That would seem to be the messege that Westin is sending.
How interesting. At the same time Rather and company will try and out the scapegoat...to protect the other Dems,
Westin sends the marching order to stop looking into the story.
I mean c'mon. How often do you see a news director tell his investigative sniffdogs to go fetch bones on the other side of the lake--the side where CBS failed to leave traces of its culpability?
This is unprecedented.
I can also think of a yet another reason for ABC to go easy on CBS: So many people got fed up w/Rather in the last 10 days that thousands of folks have not only dumped CBS, but all network stations from its DISH/cable lineup.
CBS might be there to twist the knife, but who would watch?
Westin doesn't have a clue.
If he doesn't realize that CBS News has taken ABC, NBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and all the rest of the liberal "old media" down with it, then he is maliciously neglegent and should be immediately replaced by ABC. Westin and the others should have blood in their eyes over what CBS has done to them.
If I was responsible for promoting a product like ABC News, I would be going after CBS with both barrels blazing insread of worrying that my producers will someday get caught using forgeries and phony witnesses for a story. Uh....
Report the truth and they'll have nothing to worry about
Ignore the truth .. and the viewers will let them know it
CBS claims they were misled. THEY did the misleading of all of their 60 Minutes viewers.
CBS...ABS....NBS...PBS.... THERES A DIFFERENCE ?
Westin knows the score. It's not about Bush, but about just how partisan the media is. Will they start telling both side of every story? No. The days of 30-minute nightly newscasts are OVER and have been OVER since the invention of 24-hour cable news. The nightly newscasts are like reading the next day newspaper. The news is old and stale.
Boilerplate, standard Liberalism. Portray oneself as a victim.
CBS is going to position itself as the victim now. Typical, and entirely predictable.
Bump
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