CBS Regrets Bush Memos Story

CBSNews.com ^ | 9-20-04 | Unknown

[SmithPatterson]

CBS Regrets Bush Memos Story

NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2004

(CBS/AP) CBS News on Monday said it regretted broadcasting a story about President Bush's military service based on documents whose authenticity is in doubt, saying the source of the material had misled the network.

CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the original story, apologized.

In a statement, CBS said former Texas Guard official Bill Burkett "has acknowledged that he provided the now-disputed documents" and "admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."

The network did not say the memoranda — purportedly written by one of Mr. Bush's National Guard commanders — were forgeries. But the network did say it could not authenticate the documents and that it should not have reported them.

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," said the statement by CBS News President Andrew Heyward. "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

"Nothing is more important to us than our credibility and keeping faith with the millions of people who count on us for fair, accurate, reliable, and independent reporting," Heyward continued. "We will continue to work tirelessly to be worthy of that trust."

Additional reporting on the documents will air on Monday's CBS Evening News, including the interview of Burkett by Rather. CBS News pledged "an independent review of the process by which the report was prepared and broadcast to help determine what actions need to be taken."

In a separate statement, Rather said that "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," he said.

"We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," Rather added.

The authenticity of the documents — four memoranda attributed to Guard commander Lt. Col. Jerry Killian — has been under fire since they were described in a Sept. 8 broadcast of 60 Minutes.

CBS had not previously 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.

In the statement, CBS said: "Burkett originally said he obtained the documents from another former Guardsman. Now he says he got them from a different source whose connection to the documents and identity CBS News has been unable to verify to this point."

Questions about the president's National Guard service have lingered for years. Some critics question how Mr. Bush got into the Guard 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 any service by Mr. Bush during the latter part of 1972, a period during which 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 service.

Skeptics immediately seized on the typing in the memos, which included a superscripted "th" not found on all 1970s-era typewriters. As the controversy raged, CBS broadcast interviews with experts who said that some typewriters from that period could have produced the markings in question.

Other critics saw factual errors in the documents, stylistic differences with other writing by Killian and incorrect military lingo.

Some relatives of Col. Killian disputed that the memos were real. His former secretary said the sentiments regarding Mr. Bush's failures as an officer were genuine, but the documents were not.

Some document experts whom CBS consulted for the story told newspapers they had raised doubts before the broadcast and were ignored. CBS disputed their accounts, pointing to the main document expert the network consulted, Marcel Matley.

Matley insisted he had vouched for the authenticity of the signatures on the memos, but had not determined whether the documents themselves were genuine.

Last week, CBS News stood by its reporting while vowing to continue working the story. 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."

The Bush campaign has alleged that their Democratic rivals were somehow involved in the story. John Kerry's campaign denies it. In an email revealed last week, Burkett said he had contacted the Kerry campaign but received no response.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to find and make public by next week any unreleased files about Mr. Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard service to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Associated Press.

The White House and Defense Department have on several occasions claimed that they had released all the documents only to make additional records available later on.

©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Mach9]

Yes, yes, yes, YES!

[Wissa]

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," said the statement by CBS News President Andrew Heyward.

Previously you DID know they were authentic?!? If the only acceptable journalistic standard is not to use them in a report unless they can be proven to be authentic, then why did you use them?!!!

[Conservative4Ever]

We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," Rather added.

Ummmm...sorry you were exposed by jammie wearing amateurs Dan or sorry the document weren't better forgeries. You are toast Dan.

Red

[HoustonTech]

So does this mean Burkett confessed to making the forgeries or just handing them over???

Burkett got the forgeries from someone else. Who would be motivated to do that? Hmmmm?

[Casloy]

What a bunch of dirtbags. Come on out and say the documents were forgeries and therefore the entire story is false. This wasn't bad judgement, this was a deliberate attempt to smear the president and you got caught. Now, use some of those reporters you have and dig down till you find out who produced those documents. Stop pretending your source won't reveal his source.

[rwilliam]

Here's the official, detailed release from CBS:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/20/politics/main644539.shtml

[sgtbono2002]

CBS isnt sorry for the report, they are sorry THEY GOT CAUGHT. Just like all criminals are sorry after they are caught.

[MeekOneGOP]

CBS Regrets Bush Memos Story

Ping to a few folks!

I think the article says that Rather will broadcast his interview with Burkett on tonight's Evening News.

---

From the article:

CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the original story, apologized.

In a statement, CBS said former Texas Guard official Bill Burkett "has acknowledged that he provided the now-disputed documents" and "admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."

The network did not say the memoranda — purportedly written by one of Mr. Bush's National Guard commanders — were forgeries. But the network did say it could not authenticate the documents and that it should not have reported them.

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," said the statement by CBS News President Andrew Heyward. "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

---

[Lady Jag]

Acknowledging their fake is not enough.

cBS has probably convinced itself they, like most leftist organizers, can ooze their way out of it.

[Socratic]

"This is not enough. They did some damage to the President's reputation."

They also damaged the stock value of VIACOM which damages 100's of thousands of people, directly. The Securities and Exchange Commision should investigate why Rather and Mapes is allowed to stay to the detriment of the shareholders.

[MeekOneGOP]

---

FreeRepublic.com had the HIGHEST number of new signups EVER the week of 9-13-2004 since records have been kept!

That week, we had 2,313 signups.

The old record was the week of week of 3-17-2003, when we had 1,972 new signups (if my Excel spreadsheet tallied them all up correctly):

Chart: Signups

Chart: Signups
Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
2004.09.13	280	329	367	390	369	303	275
2004.09.06	203	201	169	249	277	345	242
2004.08.30	157	161	159	178	204	223	133
< snip >
2003.03.24	343	253	281	214	202	181	153
2003.03.17	182	257	333	350	289	248	313
2003.03.10	153	149	155	149	120	126	114

[rabidralph]

But the network did say it could not authenticate the documents and that it should not have reported them.

In other news, Charles Whitman says he should not have shot those people.

[ModelBreaker]

"Burkett originally said he obtained the documents from another former Guardsman. Now he says he got them from a different source whose connection to the documents and identity CBS News has been unable to verify to this point."

This is the key data. Burkett denies forging the documents. His wrongdoing, according to this, is lying about who gave them to him. I am sure this sentence was rewritten 100 times to conceal important information, including

(1) Who is the actual source that Burkett now claims gave him the memos?;

(2) How did the memos actually get to CBS?;

(3) How did the DNC know to have ads ready to run a day or two after the 60 Minutes episode?; and

(4) Did Burkett coordinate the DNC ad and CBS stories or someone else--perhaps Max Cleland.

[Lazamataz]

CBS News on Monday said it regretted broadcasting a story about President Bush's military service based on documents whose authenticity is in doubt, saying the source of the material had misled the network.

You regret getting caught.

CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the original story, apologized.

But wait! Didn't he say that if the documents proved false, he'd investigate that story???

Dig, Dan, DIG!

[p. henry]

According to the statement,

1. Burkett says he got the documents from someone else and lied to CBS about the identity of that person to fulfill a promise of confidentiality.

2. CBS has not been able to VERIFY the identity of that person or his relationship to the documents (emphasis added).

"Verify" is an interesting word. Generally, it means to establish or vouch for the truth of something. If CBS is attempting to establish the truth of the identity of Burkett's source, it must know that identity. One cannot verify the truth of something one does not know.

So, CBS, out with it. What is Burkett's latest story about the source of the documents? And you better not tell us that you agreed with Burkett to keep that little morsel of information confidential.

[dfwgator]

Adolf Hitler apologized for the Holocaust.

[Dems_R_Losers]

It's very obvious now...

Burkett got the memos from BEN BARNES, through his lawyer Van Os. Rather is still protecting Barnes. Van Os is protected by attorney-client privilege.

I will bet any amount of money that Ben Barnes had the documents made. He and Van Os knew of Burkett's obsession with Bush and knew they could get him to pass off the memos as real to CBS. It was all a big setup. Burkett is the fall guy.

[ClancyJ]

CBS is no longer in service - it is now DNC-CBS in the interest of truth in broadcasting.

[MEG33]

The network did not say the memoranda — purportedly written by one of Mr. Bush's National Guard commanders — were forgeries. But the network did say it could not authenticate the documents and that it should not have reported them.
.............................................................
Until they acknowledge that these docs are fake..they will get hammered....We are here and we are not going away...They are forged.

[patriciamary]

CBS just issued their statement and no one including Rather was sorry,they even mention the women who said to be Killian's secretary still said there was problem with Bush.Now all are saying let's more on.If this is the case and the RNC gives Kerry another pass.Why isn't anyone say she wasn't this general's personal secretary and showing her ties to the DNC and exposing Kerry ties to these lies.If the RNC doesn't go after Kerry and the DNC republicans should just stay home on election day!