Posted on 01/10/2005 8:30:52 AM PST by Fido969
Excerpt from CBS press release:
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This brings us to two senior figures at CBS News whose performance is discussed in some depth in the Panel's report. Based on the findings of that report, we believe the following is appropriate:
The Panel found that Dan Rather was pushed to the limit in the week before the September 8th broadcast. He was finishing up the anchoring job at the 2004 Republican Convention and was covering Hurricane Frances in Florida. He asked the right questions initially, but then made the same errors of credulity and over-enthusiasm that beset many of his colleagues in regard to this segment. He was convinced that the documents were authenticated because he was told in no uncertain terms that this was so. He defended the story over-zealously afterwards; again, he believed in a star associate with whom he had worked often, and to award-winning result. The Panel has found that his unwillingness to consider that CBS News and his colleague were in the wrong was a mistake, and that the broadcast would have benefited from a more direct involvement on Rather's part.
Dan Rather has already apologized for the segment and taken personal responsibility for his part in the broadcast. He voluntarily moved to set a date to step down from the CBS Evening News anchor chair in March of 2005, which will give him more time to concentrate on his reporting for CBS NEWS. After examining the report and thinking about its implications, we believe any further action would not be appropriate.
This brings us to CBS NEWS President Andrew Heyward. The Panel's report shows that before the segment was broadcast, Heyward explicitly warned West and Howard that "we will have to defend 'every syllable' of the segment and, as we mentioned earlier, specifically urged them not to allow the production team to 'stampede us.'" In the aftermath of the report, he issued direct instructions to investigate the sourcing of the story and the authentication of the documents and pressed for his staff to come up with new and substantive information rather than merely standing by the story in a "stubborn repetition of what we've already said." However, the Panel concluded that Heyward's directives were not implemented in a prompt or systematic way.
This raises questions about accountability at CBS News -- questions that will have to be addressed both by Andrew Heyward and me. We intend to do so. But Heyward is an executive of integrity and talent, and the right person to be leading CBS NEWS during this challenging time.
Heyward still let it on the air. He's as biased as Rather.
Any stupid, biased and incompetent news department could have run the story. It takes CBS and its star investigators, three monts later, to say they can't prove the documents are fake.
How is it that in two and a half months, no one has produced a contemporary (1970) document, from any source whatsoever, that matches the typeface?
I'm still waiting for someone at CBS to explain how you can definitively authenticate a document from a copy.
Dan Rather has already apologized for the segment and taken personal responsibility for his part in the broadcast.
Funny, I don't remember him apologizing to Pres. Bush after he tried to hang a bogus story on him.
"It wasn't his fault. He had access to a large staff of researchers, he had experts in authorizing these documents, he has people who go get his coffee for him so he doesn't have to get off his butt. But he is overworked. "
Wonder what the excuse was for all the other so-called INVESTIGATIONS by 60MINUTES in the past, that have been found to be totally BOGUS?
"It wasn't his fault. He had access to a large staff of researchers, he had experts in authorizing these documents, he has people who go get his coffee for him so he doesn't have to get off his butt. But he is overworked. "
Wonder what the excuse was for all the other so-called INVESTIGATIONS by 60MINUTES in the past, that have been found to be totally BOGUS?
You're right. Dan has plenty of staff and assistants to make sure the stories are correct. He knew what he was doing.
Meanwhile, the two people most responsible for the story, two leftist men, get a pass.
It's not a good day the feminazis.
Fired:
Mary Murphy, senior broadcast producer,
Esther Kartiganer, senior producer, transcript reader
Betsy West, senior vice president
And being good feminazis, they won't utter a word to protest the fact that the men responsible are still there...
Ah, yes. Poor Mary Mapes, the innocent victim. My heart goes out to her.
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