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CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say
NEW yORK tIMES ^ | September 20, 2004 | JIM RUTENBERG

Posted on 09/20/2004 8:17:47 AM PDT by Kaslin

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.

But they cautioned that CBS News could still pull back from an announcement. Officials met last night with Dan Rather, the anchor who presented the report, to go over the information it had collected about the documents one last time before making a final decision. Mr. Rather was not available for comment late last night.

The report relied in large part on four memorandums purported to be from the personal file of Mr. Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who died 20 years ago. The memos, dated from the early 1970's, said that Colonel Killian was under pressure to "sugar coat'' the record of the young Lieutenant Bush and that the officer had disobeyed a direct order to take a physical.

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 developments last night marked a dramatic turn for CBS News, which for a week stood steadfastly by its Sept. 8 report as various document experts asserted that the typeface of the memos could have been produced only by a modern-day word processor, not Vietnam War-era typewriters.

The seemingly unflappable confidence of Mr. Rather and top news division officials in the documents allayed fears within the network and created doubt among some in the news media at large that those specialists were correct. CBS News officials had said they had reason to be certain that the documents indeed had come from the personal file of Colonel Killian.

Sandy Genelius, a network spokeswoman, said last week, "We are confident about the chain of custody; we're confident in how we secured the documents.''

But officials decided yesterday that they would most likely have to declare that they had been misled about the records' origin after Mr. Rather and a top network executive, Betsy West, met in Texas with a man who was said to have helped the news division obtain the memos, a former Guard officer named Bill Burkett.

Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos had come from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted. These people indicated that Mr. Burkett had previously led the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, to have the utmost confidence in the material.

It was unclear last night if Mr. Burkett had told Mr. Rather that he had been misled about the documents' provenance or that he had been the one who did the misleading.

In an e-mail message yesterday, Mr. Burkett declined to answer any questions about the documents.

Yesterday, Emily J. Will, a document specialist who inspected the records for CBS News and said last week that she had raised concerns about their authenticity with CBS News producers, confirmed a report in Newsweek that a producer had told her that the source of the documents said they had been obtained anonymously and through the mail.

In an interview last night she declined to name the producer who told her this but said the producer was in a position to know. CBS News officials have disputed her contention that she warned the network the night before the initial "60 Minutes'' report that it would face questions from documents experts.

In the coming days CBS News officials plan to focus on how the network moved ahead with the report when there were warning signs that the memorandums were not genuine.

Ms. Will is one of two documents experts consulted by the network who said they raised doubts about the material before the segment was broadcast. Another expert, Marcel B. Matley, said in interviews that he had vouched only for Colonel Killian's signatures on the records and not the authenticity of the records themselves. Mr. Matley said he could not rule out that the signatures had been cut and pasted from official records pertaining to Colonel Killian.

In examining where the network had gone wrong, officials at CBS News turning their attention to Ms. Mapes, one of their most respected producers, who was riding particularly high this year after breaking news about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for the network.

In a telephone interview this weekend, Josh Howard, the executive producer of the "60 Minutes'' Wednesday edition, said that he did not initially know who was Ms. Mapes' primary source for the documents but that he did not see any reason to doubt them. He said he believed Ms. Mapes and her team had appropriately answered all questions about the documents' authenticity and, he noted, no one seemed to be casting doubt upon the essential thrust of the report.

"The editorial story line was still intact, and still is, to this day,'' he said, "and the reporting that was done in it was by a person who has turned in decades of flawless reporting with no challenge to her credibility.''

He added, "We in management had no sense that the producing team wasn't completely comfortable with the results of the document analysis.''

Ms. Mapes has not responded to requests for comment.

Mr. Howard also said in the interview that the White House did not dispute the veracity of the documents when it was presented to them on the morning of the report. That reaction, he said, was "the icing on the cake'' of the other reporting the network was conducting on the documents. White House officials have said they saw no reason to challenge documents being presented by a credible news organization.

Several people familiar with the situation said they were girding for a particularly tough week for Mr. Rather and the news division should the network announce its new doubts.

One person close to the situation said the critical question would be, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?''


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Alabama; US: Georgia; US: Massachusetts; US: New York; US: Texas
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1 posted on 09/20/2004 8:17:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin


Pass the buck.


2 posted on 09/20/2004 8:18:09 AM PDT by Repairman Jack
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To: Kaslin

This is about the 5th time this has been posted.


3 posted on 09/20/2004 8:19:10 AM PDT by Taliesan (fiction police)
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To: Kaslin

If so, then I think they have an obligation to tell us who the source was.


4 posted on 09/20/2004 8:19:35 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Kaslin

5 posted on 09/20/2004 8:19:50 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: Kaslin

My bet is the Dem shills at SeeBS will still try to pin their botched hatchet job on Bush and the RNC.


6 posted on 09/20/2004 8:20:01 AM PDT by JeeperFreeper
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To: Kaslin
the White House did not dispute the veracity of the documents when it was presented to them on the morning of the report. That reaction, he said, was "the icing on the cake'' of the other reporting the network was conducting on the documents.

Don't bring a checker to a chess match!

7 posted on 09/20/2004 8:20:28 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Kaslin

The NYT says that CBS concludes it was misled, but no similar conclusion from the NYT? The NYT article was every bit as misleading as the CBS story. If CBS is going to retract its story, then the NYT must do the same.


8 posted on 09/20/2004 8:21:08 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Kaslin

We need to look at any press release they send out to see if it authentic. Too many fakes from Black Rock. We should insist that document specialists exam the release carefully and not accept the press release as genuine for at least FIVE days.


9 posted on 09/20/2004 8:21:23 AM PDT by pikachu (The REAL script)
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To: Kaslin
A slippery half apology isn't enough. this was much too big a mistake so close to an election in a tight Presidential race. Not to mention rather defended the memos and the story for a week.

Nope, Rather has to resign for CBS to have a chance of moving on from this.

10 posted on 09/20/2004 8:21:48 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Taliesan

It has been posted alot.

But...is everyone assuming since they are interviewing Burkett that they are going to admit they were duped?

Or, as silly as this sounds, are they going to use Burkett to attempt to validate the authenticity of the memos?

Sound outrageous? Absolutely! But this whole affair has been outrageous by CBS. We will see.


11 posted on 09/20/2004 8:21:56 AM PDT by Patriot32
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To: Taliesan
This is about the 5th time this has been posted.

Not from the NY times. I checked the other articles and although they were about the same subject they were different.

12 posted on 09/20/2004 8:22:21 AM PDT by Kaslin (Stick a fork in Kerry, he is done)
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To: Kaslin; Admin Moderator

And this article has been posted HOW MANY times today?


13 posted on 09/20/2004 8:22:31 AM PDT by mhking ("Honey, WHERE...IS...MY....SUPER SUIT?" --Samuel L. Jackson, "The Incredibles")
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To: Kaslin

There is not one mention of the word "forgery" or "fake" in this article or SeeBS's press release.


14 posted on 09/20/2004 8:22:40 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator (I am poster #48)
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To: Kaslin
Not from the NY times.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1221014/posts

15 posted on 09/20/2004 8:23:54 AM PDT by mhking ("Honey, WHERE...IS...MY....SUPER SUIT?" --Samuel L. Jackson, "The Incredibles")
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To: Kaslin

The Three Stooges are more adept than these jerks at CBS. Talk about spin???


16 posted on 09/20/2004 8:24:28 AM PDT by Cobra64 (Babes should wear Bullet Bras - www.BulletBras.net)
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To: Psycho_Bunny

Pardon me for saying this, but you seem defensive.

I'm not being defensive! You're the one who's being defensive! Why is always the other person who's being defensive? Have you ever asked yourself that? Why don't you ask yourself that?


17 posted on 09/20/2004 8:24:57 AM PDT by petercooper (All I wanted to know about Islam, I learned on 9-11-01.)
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To: Kaslin
"Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?''

And the day after, and the day after that. CBS had a 24 hour window in which to announce an internal investigation. After 12 days, the story is over, except for the list of CBS employees that will resign.

18 posted on 09/20/2004 8:25:25 AM PDT by js1138 (Speedy architect of perfect labyrinths.)
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To: Kaslin

Sounds like they are leaning toward the "fake but accurate" defense.


19 posted on 09/20/2004 8:25:28 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: Kaslin

Annnnd? Will there be a follow up on who gave him the fake docs....I THINK NOT! CBS feels that be admitting the docs are fake, that'll be the end of the story! Even ABC is caving in on BLATHER! Digging will stop as soon as MIA CULPA is spewed by CoverageBullSh**!!They're under the great illusion the investigation will stop the moment theyannounce the "WE WAZ DUPED!"


20 posted on 09/20/2004 8:25:29 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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