Posted on 09/14/2004 4:49:36 PM PDT by Pikamax
THE LATEST FROM CBS AND ABC [09/14 07:41 PM]
My source familiar with the internal discussions at CBS describes the atmosphere at the network offices tonight as "madness" and "toxic". Apparently a real bunker mentality is setting in; there is reportedly a great deal of anger at ABC for running a scathing report about the memos.
I didn't see the ABC report (the CBS report was so shockingly false I needed smelling salts) , but apparently it was a humdinger. Here's a summary of each network from ABC:
ABC's Brian Ross interviewed the two experts who CBS hired to validate the National Guard documents and reports they ignored concerns they raised prior to the CBS News broadcast. "I did not feel that they wanted to investigate it very deeply," Emily Will told Ross. "I did not authenticate anything and I don't want it to be misunderstood that I did," Linda James told Ross. Ross reports 2 experts told ABC News today that even the most advanced typewriter available in 1972 could not have produced the documents. Ross also reported that Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's secretary says she believes the documents are fake but that they express thoughts Killian believed. In the "Inside Story" on the CBS "Evening News," John Roberts said that CBS "continues to stand by its reporting" on Bush's National Guard records. Roberts derisively said Bush "barely mentioned his service" today while appearing before the Guard association. Roberts closed by saying that Bush's goal is to turn the focus of the debate away from the questions to "those asking them."
The next big question: How do the major papers treat CBS' report tonight? And when do we start to see the first non-conservative editorials and columns ripping the network?
John Roberts lost his credibility as nightly news anchor before he even got a chance to replace Gunga Dan.
AHHHHHHHH poor babies...NOT! :)
Time to get me a sixpack, bag of popcorn and enjoy the fun from the sidelines.
Well, Robert, what are the questions based on besides fraudulent documents and Democrat partisans?
Hehehehe. I can;t wait until all the networks start taking on each other. A good knockdown Barroom ball fight is just what the American media needs. Otherwise they have become irrelevant. The internet will drive them out of business if they don't tend to business.
Bunch of Joseph Goebels.
There have been comparisons to this issue and Watergate, and I am starting to think they may fit (how ironic is THAT?)
The Washington Post beat up on Nixon for a year and the NYTimes for about 8 months without taking him out. However, when the Midwest "non-liberal elite" newspapers started editorializing for Nixon to resign, he was finished.
This story is moving very fast. ABC jumping in is a big development. By this weekend we could see some newspapers start to opine against CBS. In my most optimistic mode, I see Rather giving CBS an ultimatum mid next week: "You either continue to support me on this --OR ELSE!!" And then the "or else" happens. I can dream, can't I?
BREAKING: On its top of the hour news ABC radio just aired a document expert who says she warned CBS not to air the story. This was the LEAD STORY. Look for a thread to pop up soon...
Maybe the Post can come out with a book: "All the Reporter's Men (and Women)".
He's behind the curve on this. Already, lamestream newspapers are calling CBS into question. Papers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Dallas Morning News.
Meta-Survivor: The Networks Fight It Out!
This is a story waiting to explode.
If a reporter can tie the DNC and Kerry to the forgeries this could be BIGGER THAN THE WATERGATE BREAK INS!
Think about it. It has all of the elements, dirt tricks, illegal activity, a desperate political campaign, and CONSPIRACIES CONSPIRACIES CONSPIRACIES!
Viacom has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. If ratings, revenue and share price take a plunge after this, Viacom can be made to pay big.
When they hear in the future that tv news shows are one-sided, partisan, and prejudiced, a lot more of the public will be willing to do some of their own thinking.
It used to be that the news media presented facts, both sides of the issues. With the advent of news magazine type shows, and which 60 Minutes used to be the most credible, the neworks have become advocates of positions rather than reporters of facts.
I so love it that the public are now being exposed to the same crap that the intelligent freepers have been telling them is crap. It's been a great 6 days!
A small quibble. That, at one time, may have been good advice, but at one time both Bin Laden and Saddam were enemies of our enemy and, therefore, friends, then fiends.
There are some serious legal issues here. CBS failed to locate the typist, failed to present evidence by those who knew Killian best, and now it is revealed that all three of its document experts disavow the documents.
What we have here is malice plus reckless disregard for the truth.
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