Posted on 09/20/2004 8:34:16 AM PDT by plushaye
CBS News planned Monday to issue a statement about documents purporting to show President Bush neglected some duties when he was in the National Guard more than 30 years ago.
The authenticity of the documents four memoranda attributed to one of Mr. Bush's Guard commanders, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian has been under fire since they were described in a Sept. 8 broadcast of 60 Minutes.
According to The Washington Post, the network plans to say it was misled about the authenticity of the documents.
The New York Times reports that CBS News officials met Sunday evening with anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the contested story, to discuss the network's next steps.
CBS sources confirm that the network plans to issue a statement but would not comment on its content. Additional reporting on the documents dispute will air on Monday's CBS Evening News.
It was not clear if the network planned to apologize, the Post reported.
The Post and Times report that CBS' latest move comes after Rather met in Texas with Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard official who has been named as a possible source for the documents.
CBS has not revealed who provided the documents or how they were obtained.
Burkett has previously alleged that in 1997 he witnessed allies of then-Gov. Bush discussing the destruction of Guard files that might embarrass Mr. Bush, who was considering a run for the presidency.
Bush aides have denied the charge. Burkett has refused to comment on the controversy over the CBS memos story.
Questions about the president's National Guard service have lingered for years. Some critics question how Mr. Bush got into the Guard at a time when there were waiting lists of young men hoping to join it to escape the draft and possible service in Vietnam.
In the Sept. 8 60 Minutes report, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes a Democrat claimed that, at the behest of a friend of the Bush family, he pulled strings to get young George W. Bush into the Guard.
Other questions concern why Mr. Bush missed a physical in 1972, and why there are scant records of service during the summer and fall of 1972, when he transferred to an Alabama guard unit so he could work on a campaign there.
The CBS documents suggested that Mr. Bush had disobeyed a direct order to attend the physical, and that there were other lapses in his performance. One memo also indicated that powerful allies of the Bush family were pressuring the guard to "sugar coat" any investigation of Lt. Bush's performance.
Skeptics immediately seized on the typing in the memos, which included a superscripted "th" not found on all 1970s-era typewriters. Some relatives of Col. Killian disputed that the memos were real. His former secretary said the sentiments regarding Mr. Bush were genuine, but the documents were not.
Some document experts whom CBS consulted for the story told newspapers they had raised doubts, and were ignored. CBS disputed their accounts. But the main document expert the network consulted insisted he had vouched only for the authenticity of the signatures on the memos, not whether the documents themselves were genuine.
CBS News stood by its reporting while vowing to continue working the story. Last week, the network acknowledged there were questions about the documents and pledged to try to answer them.
Mr. Bush maintains that he did not get special treatment in getting into the Guard, and that he fulfilled all duties. He was honorably discharged.
On Saturday, a White House official said Mr. Bush has reviewed the disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972, and did not recall having seen them previously.
In his first public comment on the documents controversy, the president told The Union Leader of Manchester, N.H., "There are a lot of questions about the documents, and they need to be answered."
Well, that's consistent with CBS relying on the Bush Admin to do the fact checking on an attack piece where they are the target...
So who made a couple million dollar paper profit between 10:15 and 10:45 off of this menu, on the rumor that CBS was gonna fire Dan Rather?
After all, buy Viacom shares at 34.4 at 10:15, sell them at 34.7 at 10:40......
Oh Danny Boy, the Feds the Feds are calling.....
FEDERAL WIRE FRAUD STATUTE
Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343.
Summary - If you are found guilty of using Radio, Television or phone lines (including fax machines) to commit Fraud you can get up to 20 years in prison. No wonder CBS may now claim they are the victims.
LOL
Look for a "DIXIE CHICKS MOMENT" i.e.: "My family and I have received death threats...." Something to make FR look bad.
Rather statement:
Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in questionand their sourcevigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.
Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point whereif I knew then what I know nowI would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.
But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.
Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully.
Fact is, there are a LOT of VERY serious issues that should be pushed HARD OTHER than the documets. The other issues expose HOW THE MEDIA WING OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY ACTUALLY WORKS! CBS' "gold standard" included:
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. Staudt, who had his character attacked in one memo, was never contacted
6. The opinions of the experts were MISREPRESENTED
7. The swift boat veterans were MALIGNED
8. 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!!
What do you expect - it's not like they can trust themselves.
DRUDGE EXCLUSIVE
STATEMENT FROM DAN RATHER:
Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in questionand their sourcevigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.
Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point whereif I knew then what I know nowI would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.
But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.
Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully.
This what the KERRY SPOT says on National Review:
WHAT CBS IS TELLING EMPLOYEES [09/20 11:57 AM]
Don't expect any bombshell admissions from CBS today.
According to an individual familiar with discussions inside CBS, network employees were told "pretty much what Drudge has - that they were deceived, the weren't trying to mislead the public, there will be an investigation into how this happened, etc." There will be a public announcement saying basically the same this afternoon.
CBS's leaders did not say anything about why they disregarded the warnings from their own experts, or mention anything about an apology to the president. They are still insisting that the premise of the story is correct and they'll still be pursuing it.
The individual suggests that CBS News executives are simply testing the public announcement on the employees to see "how it plays," and that right now there are no signs of Rather or anyone else falling upon his or her sword for the good of the network.
The signals from within CBS suggest that Rather is going to try to weather the storm and wait it out into a new news cycle. Could his ego ever allow anyone else to sit at the network's anchor desk on Election Night?
What a mess. All Pajamahadeen, please report to battlestations. Prepare to double the pressure on all affiliates, advertisers, and Viacom shareholders.
"Instead of eye for CBS logo, how about a cat scatching around in a litter box after doing its business?"
Even more appropriate, a cat trying to cover up its business on a linoleum floor.
Pi-i-i-i-tiful.
Or, as Casey Kasem once said... "ponderous, man, &^%& ponderous"
I think in all fairness CBS should let FreeRepublic post their 'apology/denial' first.
I saw the original text of the apology. There's something not right about it. It looks like it was done on an old typewriter.
Probably used this one.
And the rest of the media were perfectly prepared to run with it and ignore the numerous stories on record refuting it like they always ignore the state of the record in favor of dem spin.
They only picked up the ball on this story when the forgery aspect was crystal clear to everyone.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.