STATEMENT FROM DAN RATHER (UPDATE: Statement released)

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[TheGeezer]

Update by moderator:

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 question—and their source—vigorously. 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 where—if I knew then what I know now—I 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.

[Last Visible Dog]

You're wrong, and I have documents that say so. =P

That made me laugh out loud - and I am on a conference call.

[NCjim]

Mark for later - what a day to have to work!!!

[Chaguito]

"no fear or favoritism"...

So we'll be seeing the Swift Boat Veterans on 60 Minutes pretty soon. Right?

[LiveFreeOrDie2001]

Thanks for posting a message!

Someone have CBS's Newsroom phone number ???

I've seen it posted on other threads - Thanks....

[Rockpile]

o: cyncooper Perhaps CBS will air that interview with Burkett, have him admit he provided, them, and have him offer some gobbledy gook about "reconstructing" or some such garbage and that will a lame prong in trying to cover themselves.

I said over the weekend that Burkett will take the hit as the Democratic patsy. In the Texas tradition of Oswald under orders from octupus operative Guy Bannister, Burkett will take his orders tantamount to getting a job at the Texas School Book Depository so that the light will shine on him alone.

207 posted on 09/20/2004 9:22:45 AM PDT by Colofornian

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I agree that Burkett is their useful idiot but of course he's a fully co-operating idiot. He is their Oswald and if things become too dicey then Burkett will have to be Fosterized. The DNC and Kerry Campaign are directly involved and Burkett better figure out that HE is completely expendable.

[B.Bumbleberry]

Hope you are right. I'm not as confident that it will be blown open. We'll see. Some of the MSM have been after this pretty hard, so maybe they won't stop. I suspect they're all seeing a little of themselves in the mirror on this matter. One thing is for sure: uless CBS is forced to open up by relentless pressure, they're going to keep the lid on.

[Cboldt]

Isikoff on FOX saying CBS statement raised more questions. They are trying to pin this on Burkett. But that raises the question what steps did they take to check out Burkett's story.

Spikey Mikey (Isikoff) just noticed questions raised last week by most of the rest of the snob media. CBS didn't respect their own experts' opinions that the documents were inauthentic. Given that, any reasonable news operations stops right there, and moves on. No public presentation at all, no fallout.

[GoLightly]

Course their not, he's the fall guy. Burkett will try to take one for the good of the party, but there is that "impeachable source" thing & Burkett don't qualify.

[DustyMoment]

Rush made an interesting assessment of Blather's and SeeBS's statements - He noted that they seemed to be content to let this issue go away with this statement and Bill Burkett's acknowledgement that he (Burkett) misled SeeBS. But, Rush further noted, that Blather doesn't appear to be too upset that his career as a "journalist" has been sunk by the likes of Burkett and suggests that Blather and SeeBS are still covering the actual source of the forged docs.

Burkett has made too much of the fact that (as he claims) he was given the docs by someone else and just managed to get them into SeeBS's hands after trying to get Cleland to move on them. When Cleland wouldn't do anything with the docs, Burkett did an end-around and went directly to SeeBS who bought the story hook, line and sinker.

So, with Burkett making these claims and Blather and SeeBS issuing a weak statement of apology that admits the docs were forged, why is Blather not pursuing this story to the ends of the earth to discover who it was that made a patsy out of Bill Burkett? Speculation has it that they know and that the real source of the docs is in the Kerry campaign.

So the question remains - how far will Blather allow his credibility to sink before actually getting to the real perpetrator of the forged docs and taking the Kerry campaign down with him? Inquiring minds want . . . DEMAND to know!!!

[mwl1]

If the White House is going to issue a statement, this story takes on yet another dimension entirely.

1. They know this is working for the President politically.

2. They are angry, especially at the CBS trashing of the First Lady.

3. They know as much or more than CBS, and are going on the offense.

I would LOVE to see a criminal referral to the Department of Justice mentioned in the White House statement.

[zetapsi]

You mean that this wasn't really a Karl Rove conspiracy?!?!

[GailA]

No, dan's sorry dan made a mistake, this was NOT an apology to President Bush for their slander of him.

[cake_crumb]

Does anyone but me suspect CBS' non-apology, refusal to give up the alleged source and claim of further investigation because they're trying to manufacture better forgeries by October? Or should I loosen my aluminum foil beanie.

[F.J. Mitchell]

LOL! Never has so much been said in so few words.

Your day job isn't as a condenser for Readers Digest, is it Laz?

[Reagan Man]

For this conservative, in my book Dan Rather ate crow BIGTIME. When he said, "We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made...", that was an admission of error and that makes it an apology. To your asssertion of a "crime" having been commited. Rather and cbs committed an offense that was reprehensible, foolish and disgraceful. It tarnished cbs forever. But no one broke the law and no one is punishable under law. It's part of the political process. It helps the President's campaign efforts and further undermines Kerry's credibility. Would I enjoy seeing Rather step down as cbs anchor, you betcha. But I doubt that will happen. OTOH. This story has legs and will be around for a while and Rather will be rightfully kicked around for a while over his failure in this incident.

[B.Bumbleberry]

If you get the number, please ping me. I'll call too. Let's do whatever we can to keep the pressure on so they'll fess up on the details of this dirty trick.

[GoLightly]

Giving us the plumber won't cut it. Funny how John Dean started working for Kerry this year... Mo still around?

[Alberta's Child]

Better yet, maybe 60 Minutes I can do an expose on 60 Minutes II?

Not a bad idea. Scrappleface has already posted a "breaking news story" in which Dan Rather has called for the resignation of Dan Rather.

[valleygal]

I get Rush later than some so this has probably been mentioned. His show just started and he called us, "THE PAJAMA BRIGADE". :)

Earlier show (Barry Young) said Burkett faxed the papers to Cleland and Cleland passed them on. Has this been confirmed? I'll go back and read the thread now...

[cyncooper]

My gut is telling me Cleland is not involved as deeply as we think.

Cleland merely serves as evidence of connection of the Kerry Kamp to this fraud. He's the one who spoke with Burkett about "what he had" and referred him to the campaign. I have every reason to believe Burkett's posting that when he spoke with Cleland, Cleland said to attack.

Other than that, I agree with you. At this point it appears that Cleland played a significant but peripheral role.