CBS News - We were deceived.

The New York Times ^ | September 20, 2004 | JIM RUTENBERG

[ConservativeBamaFan]

fter days of expressing confidence about the documents used in a "60 Minutes'' report that raised new questions about President Bush's National Guard service, CBS News officials have grave doubts about the authenticity of the material, network officials said last night.

The officials, who asked not to be identified, said CBS News would most likely make an announcement as early as today that it had been deceived about the documents' origins. CBS News has already begun intensive reporting on where they came from, and people at the network said it was now possible that officials would open an internal inquiry into how it moved forward with the report. Officials say they are now beginning to believe the report was too flawed to have gone on the air.

[tobyhill]

Foxnews has just reported that CBS will lay claim to breaking the forged documents. This would be pure BS! I know that most people will be smart enough to see the Democrat (Kerry) CBS connection but it still ticks me off that they are still committing elderly abuse.

[marty60]

Absolutely. But I bet this tracks straight into the skerry campaign headquarters.

[sd-joe]

"The editorial story line was still intact, and still is, to this day,''

I thought that this was supposed to be NEWS, NOT an editorial.

[Conspiracy Guy]

A few hours after hitting an iceberg, the Captain, the crew, and the passengers of the Titanic realized, "We've got a freakin problem here!"

[ruready4eternity]

Personally, I think this has helped fuel the Bush campaign. This has hurt Kerry . SwiftGate & ratherGate= Kerry wont even make it out of that gate Come "NO"vember.

But all in all... Some heads have to roll over this. This just can be swept under the rug. I call for an immediate and "swift" kick in the ole a$$ of some exec's and the man preaching behind the pulpit of cbs. All in agreement give me 3 cheers.

[igoramus987]

Not even one of CBS's four document examiner would fully authenticate any of their memos. Yet they still ran with the story.

Misled? No

Rather wanted to run a hit piece on Bush, regardless of the truth? Yes

CBS's document examiners:

1. Emily Will of North Carolina, one of the experts CBS had asked to examine the memos, sent Mapes an e-mail outlining her concerns over discrepancies in Killian's signature. She also phoned CBS and raised more questions about whether the typography in the memos existed in 1972 and differences with other military documents. "They looked like trouble to me," Will said.

Linda James, a document examiner who lives near Mapes, was raising similar questions. The two memos she looked at "had problems," James recalled telling CBS, and she could not rule out that they had been "produced on a computer."

Document analyst Marcel Matley flew from California to New York, and Rather interviewed him on Labor Day, Sept. 6 -- footage that would end up on the cutting-room floor. But Matley limited his examination to Killian's signature, which he believed was probably valid, but not certain -- the lowest endorsement he offers. Because the memos were copies, Matley said in a recent interview, "there's no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them. . . . I can't say either way from my expertise, the narrow, narrow little field of my expertise." (link)

2. James J. Pierce said on 9/16, that he was still "in the middle of studying them... CBS is wrong, CBS is wrong". (link)

[cynicom]

Deceived????.....Hogwash....They were caught by the alternative to the MSM, the internet.

Gone are the days when media could peddle their bias with no opposition.

[jamaksin]

Lest we all forget ...

Question: To what "end" was the blather/CBS cabal focused?

Answer: A direct and intentional attempt to influence a Federal election.

That, folks ... is a felony.

[MistyCA]

And what about this???

---

Washington Prowler
Anatomy of a Forgery Print Friendly Format
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By The Prowler
Published 9/10/2004 12:09:06 AM


More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.

The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.

"More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity."

The concerns arose from the sourcing. "It wasn't clear that our source for the documents would have had access to them. Our person couldn't confirm from what file, from what original source they came from."

The documents that CBS News used were not documents from any of Bush's personnel files from his time in the National Guard. Rather, CBS News stated that they were documents uncovered in the personnel files of Killian. That would explain why the White House or the Pentagon had never before released or even seen them.

According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson Square. "Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on," says the staffer. "It wasn't like there were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think people here weren't sure what to make of it, because provenance of these documents was uncertain."

A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60 Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the group of producers and researchers working on the story.

"The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.' And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then you have these new documents and the tone and content are so different."

The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program.

Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."

ABC News' political unit held a conference call at 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening to discuss the memo and its potential ramifications should the documents turn out to be a forgery. That meeting took place around the time that the deceased Killian's son made public statements questioning the documents' authenticity.

According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.



http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=7096

[eeriegeno]

"We Were Deceived"? nope, "We Deceived".

'Inadvertently' of course, so no crime was committed here!!! Just like the 'inadvertent' theft of silverware and the 'inadvertent' theft of classified docs at the NA!!!!!!

Time, once again, to do some 'sugar-coating'????

[Izzy Dunne]

Our Buckhead did it faster - for free - and with more dignity.

I wonder if he was wearing pajamas at the time...

[TheGeezer]

Mr. Rather and others at the network are said to still believe that the sentiment in the memos accurately reflected Mr. Killian's feelings but that the documents' authenticity was now in grave doubt.

The documents are fake but true. That was and still is absolutely amazing, especially since others (Killian's son and widow, for example), have stepped forward to contradict the wishful thinking of Mapes and Rather concerning Killian's feelings. The last line of the story says it all: One person close to the situation said the critical question would be, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?"

Hmmm...last day and judgment resonate so well in this matter. Rather and Mapes sacrificed truth for personal advantage, ethics for political gain. Pretty disgusting stuff, especially in time of war.

Give Mapes a bottle of scotch and a revolver. Let's see if she has any dignity left.

Dan Rather? Well, he'll be studied as one whose hubris bred professional suicide and the end of the domination of American politics by MSM. His last days will deservedly be humiliating. Pack him off to some professorial position somewhere: isn't that what they do with failed liberals?

[ruready4eternity]

After this , I hope this sets the example for "all" media outlets. I hope all outlets heed the warning. Now we just know "who's who" in America. The seeds and plantations and funds from outside sources are well used in this country to bring this President down. Dont think Communism is dead. It is more real than you imagine it to be. The Enemy within.

[sauropod]

Dan Rather puts the "BS" in See-BS.

[lt.america]

That is what is driving me nuts. The documents are proven forgeries, but the EDITORIAL LINE is still intact. CBS needs to drop this whole "Bush still needs to talk to the content" BS.

If I were President Bush I would answer the question with a question of my own: "Mr. Rather, being a "respectable" journalist with no hidden agendas, why didn't you ensure the documents were genuine before you tried to smear a sitting President, and oh by the way, I don't feel the need to answer bogus accusations in fraudulent documents."

[Liberty Valance]

IMO Dan Rather should publicly thank Buckhead for actually doing the job SeeBS so obviously neglected to do.

[Jeff Head]

This is their next fall back position...still a long ways from the ugly truth.

We were deceived on paper howerever is just one word away from...

We decieved.

[MinuteGal]

Man breaks phony story.
Story breaks phony man.

Leni

[woodb01]

Fact is, there are a LOT of VERY serious issues that should be pushed HARD about the documets.
1. The widow and son were IGNORED
2. Document experts were IGNORED
3. Hodges was MISLED
4. The old secretary was NOT INTERVIEWED until afterward
5. The opinions of the experts were MISREPRESENTED
6. The swift boat veterans were MALIGNED
7. George Bush's roomate DURING HIS GUARD YEARS, who AGREED TO SPEAK TO THEM WAS TURNED DOWN BECAUSE HE WAS TOO "PRO BUSH"...

And the list goes on. Fact is, this was a HIT PIECE ON BUSH. And just because dnCBS owns up to fake documents does NOT CLEAR THEIR PROPAGANDA / DNC REPORTING!!

If the documents were the ONLY ISSUE in this, without all of the other plainly propaganda driven results, it wouldn't be such an issue.

THE DOCUMENTS ARE JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! THE ICEBERG IS THE MANIPULATION AND DECEPTION OF THE PUBLIC!!

[LS]

In any responsible business, the producers and Dan Rather would be fired. Oh, damn. Forgot. This is CBS.