Posted on 09/24/2004 1:02:15 PM PDT by FlyLow
CBS News and Dan Rather have been taking a beating over the use of the forged documents, but USA Today has a lot to explain and heads should roll there, too. It also received and publicized the phony documents from Bill Burkett, assuming they were authentic. It used Burkett as a confidential source and its standards for "verifying" the documents turn out to be even worse than those of CBS News!
On September 9, one day after the 60 Minutes story aired, USA Today was out with its own story under the headline, "Guard commander's memos criticize Bush," by Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard.
The story was based on "newly disclosed documents," the paper claimed. It said "the memos" were "obtained by USA Today and also reported Wednesday on the CBS program 60 Minutes…" The paper went on to say that White House communications director Dan Bartlett "did not dispute the documents' authenticity."
So USA Today expected the White House to do the job of verifying or debunking the documents. This was a critical mistake also made by CBS news. Obviously, the White House did not have enough time to do that. And it's not the administration's job to research stories for the Big Media. The White House took the defensible position that it was assuming the documents were valid because they had been supplied by a "reputable" news organization. The White House didn't think Dan Rather would sink so low as to pawn off phony documents as legitimate.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
What "media collusion"??
I believe they got them on their own and also had two more documents than cBS made public.
They got the same six documents from the same source as CBS.
CBS also received six documents but only reported on and posted four.
USA Today and CBS both received the same six documents directly from the same source, which we now know was Bill Burkett.
Ok.. thanks for the info.
CBS Statement to Affiliates [much more detailed statement given to affiliates than to public]
September 15, 2004
excerpt:
The 60 MINUTES Wednesday broadcast reported that it obtained six documents from the personal files of Lt. Col. Killian, four of which were used in the broadcast.
~snip~
I have been meaning to check or have someone check for us if CBS is telling the truth that "The 60 Minutes Wednesday broadcast reported that it obtained six documents..." or just kind of slipped it in there in this statement.
They almost always give me $1.00 off. USA Today's dirty little hotel marketing secret is getting the hotel to make it a part of your bill even if you don't want it. The hotel also can make $.50/copy by doing this.
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.