Posted on 10/04/2004 8:03:43 PM PDT by crushelits
Dear Viewer,
Thanks for your recent letter about the controversy surrounding CBS News, and their reporting on President Bush's National Guard service.
It is a difficult situation for us at here at Local 8 News. We have been a CBS affiliate for more than 50 years, and we are proud of that affiliation. But, while we are affiliated with CBS, we are not owned by them. They provide us with programming, everything from CSI to The CBS Evening News. We provide them with local news video when they need it. We do not have any say in CBS News policy or story selection, nor do they have any say in our local news decisions.
Our President & General Manager has called our contacts at CBS to express our concern about the handling of the story. In addition, Local 8 News has reported both the charges that the documents Mr. Rather used are forged, and CBS News' response to the charges.
I should also point out that Local 8 is the news department for our sister station KFMB 760 AM radio. The controversy has been thoroughly covered there by talk show hosts Rick Roberts, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Michael Savage.
As you know, CBS News now admits that they cannot prove the documents are accurate, and they have apologized for their lack of judgment. For the record, here are the statements issued by CBS News President Andrew Heyward, and anchor Dan Rather yesterday:
Statement from Andrew Heyward, President of CBS News
"60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY had full confidence in the original report or it would not have aired. However, in the wake of serious and disturbing questions that came up after the broadcast, CBS News has done extensive additional reporting in an effort to confirm the documents' authenticity. That included an interview featured on last week's edition of 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY (15) with Marian Carr Knox, secretary to the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, the officer named as the author of the documents; the interview with Bill Burkett to be seen tonight (20); and a further review of the forensic evidence on both sides of the debate. 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. 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. We will continue to work tirelessly to be worthy of that trust.
CBS News and CBS management are commissioning an independent review of the process by which the report was prepared and broadcast to help determine what actions need to be taken. The names of the people conducting the review will be announced shortly, and their findings will be made public."
Statement from CBS Anchor 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."
If you wish to express your concerns directly to CBS, you can use the following e-mail addresses: Audience services at audsvcs@cbs.com, or 60 Minutes Weeknight viewers at 60II@cbsnews.com.
In the meantime, Local 8 News will continue to report on both sides of the controversy on radio, TV and web until it is resolved, and we will pass your concerns on to CBS. Thanks again for writing and letting us know how you feel.
Fred D'Ambrosi News Director KFMB Stations 7677 Engineer Road San Diego, CA 92111 858-495-7510
We need to get serious, people!
Boycott all but Fox. Send emails not to the stations but to the SPONSORS. If the sponsors see that we're changing to Fox, the MMM nets will have to switch hit and start treating Bush like the decent man he is and Kerry like the traitor we all knwo him to be.
It's the SPONSORS, stupid!
bttt
Why did Fox not release the Kerry notes video, rather threw up an unrelated still shot ? Fox is not lilly white my friend.
"Boycott all but Fox."
You shouldn't be giving Fox a pass either. Remember, it was their camera feed of the debates that helped make the President look bad. They refused to follow the guidelines agreed upon by the candidates. If the feed would have only been of the person speaking, then the Rats wouldn't be using the footage to hurt the President.
Fox is also on my hate list. They are NOT fair and balanced. Also, they are not conservative - they have suckered the right.
In much the same way that the GOP is always so concerned that someone will level charges of "playing politics" against them that they refuse to go after a Democrat for anything, Fox has gotten to the point that they're so determined to prove that they're not conservative, that they're actually moving to the liberal side.
It's called SPINELESS.
MM
What they are telling you is KMA.
We will do as we please and you are going to like it.
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