Statement by the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward:

Drudge Report ^ | September 15, 2004

[RWR8189]

Statement by the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward:

"We established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate or we would not have put them on television. There was a great deal of coroborating [sic] evidence from people in a position to know. Having said that, given all the questions about them, we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing."

[FredZarguna]

THE PAJAMAHADEEN! Sorry, but I can't bring myself to even a facetious association with the "Religion of Peace." Get the marketing guys back to the drawing board.

[omstrat]

Almost fell on the floor withthat one..Too funny

[LayoutGuru2]

One entry found for accurate. Main Entry: ac·cu·rate Pronunciation: 'a-ky&-r&t, 'a-k(&-)r&t Function: adjective Etymology: Latin accuratus, from past participle of accurare to take care of, from ad- + cura care 1 : free from error especially as the result of care <an accurate diagnosis> 2 : conforming exactly to truth or to a standard : EXACT <providing accurate color> 3 : able to give an accurate result <an accurate gauge> synonym see CORRECT - ac·cu·rate·ly /'a-ky&-r&t-lE, 'a-k(&-)r&t-, 'a-k(y)&rt-/ adverb - ac·cu·rate·ness /-ky&-r&t-n&s, -k(&-)r&t-n&s/ noun

[Capricam]

They had their damned chance to do the honorable thing. They blew it. Now they deserve what they get....to get flushed down the toilet of bad history along with Kerry and Edwards!

Boycott CBS and ALL their sponsors! AND email President Bush insisting that the White House makes this investigation a priority! This is fraud, slander and against the freaking law. Dammit. Somebody needs to get fired and somebody needs to be going to prison over this.

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

Lawyers always buy more time.

Great news for Kerry. 48 days to go in the election, he's down 11 points, tied with Joseph McCarthy in popularity, and the Storm Of The Century and Rathergate are sucking up all the headlines.

[Glenn]

the one where he praised GWB.

I'm a hard guy to impress, but GWB and company have been brilliant in their silence. No denials. Never on the defensive. Just letting the other kids play until one of them gets hurt. Wonderful strategy.

[atomicpossum]

"We established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate or we would not have put them on television.

Precisely, Andrew. This is all about what it takes to meet 'your satisfaction' when you're out to grill a Republican. It seems the bar of journalistic excellence is grimly low.

There was a great deal of coroborating [sic] evidence from people in a position to know.

Yes, your unqualified 'experts,' the handwriting guy, the typewriter repairman, the guy you read the 'handwritten' memos to, and all the experts that told you you had your heads up your asses.

Having said that, given all the questions about them, we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing."

"CBS NEWS, WE SMEAR, THEN INVESTIGATE!"

[beyond the sea]

We ought to demand that he give the real Killian memo equal time - the one where he praised GWB.

Yeh that'll happen. And this hurricane will go out to sea. (sarcasm off)

[Robert357]

Clinton would be proud of the parsing. Note he is saying the content is "accurate" not that they are authentic documents.

Yes, but you also need to understand that this is a statement "by the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward.

This is not a statement by the President of CBS Corportion, nor is it a statement by a corporate officer of ViaCom.

This carefully parsed statement is the basis for which executive careers are ruined. Mr. Andrew Heyward has danced not only himself, but many underneath him and possibly some above him in the ViaComp Corporate chain of command into harm's way.

Someone in the chain of command needed to exert leadership to try to stop the attacks on the good name of ViaCom and its subsidiaries. Mr. Heyward has the opportunity to solve a public relations problem or make it worse.

Considering what most news organizations are saying and based on all the good work done by FREEPERS, this story isn't going to go away until a story is told that passes the dumb test. Mr. Heyward has an opportunity to craft that story.

If we pars the really critical words we find "...we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing."

My read of this is someone explained the obvious as to what should be done. Mr. Heyward like a good corporate soldier is going to do what should be done, but isn't very happy about it.

I see two critical questions:
(1)How much time has CBS News been given to solve the problem
(2)Will those doing the internal investigation for Mr Heyward have an independent perspective or will they have a "siege mentality."

Probably a lot of jobs over at CBS News hang in the balance of answering these two questions.

Now from a sociological experiment point of view, I am willing to bet that the other "journalists" will smell blood and soon we will see a journalistic feeding frenzy of ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN, NYT, NY POST, LA TIMEs, TIME, NEWSWEEK, etc. "redouble their efforts to cast doubts on both the CBS "documents" and the facts undlying the story." Personally, I really like what the Dallas paper has done.

If I were to bet, I would wager that Mr. Heyward either doesn't "get it" or wants to protect his staff. From a corporate management damage control perspective, he should not have defended the underlying story in his statement. An announcement of "We forged the documents so we could present the truth," will cause a pretty huge staff turn over at CBS News.

This is no longer about the "truth of the story," this is now about the reputation of the CBS Network and ViaCom. CBS News is expendable.

I think that Dan is toast and that folks over at 60 Minutes, the DNC, CBS News are all debating about cutting their losses.

[cyncooper]

This statment makes zero legal sence. It is a man refusing to listen to his lawyers or a client so guilty that giving in even a little bit means certain disaster.

Exactly.

[shrinkermd]

I am shocked that none of the married, male Freepers do not understand this defense. Most married men from time to time find themselves accused of an egregious wrongdoing. When the charge is proven false, the better half then says, "...but why don't you answer the allegations?"

CBS can not and will not make a complete admission of error at this time. They have settled for what political operatives once called "the limited, modified hangout." If they made a full confession they would have to tell how they got the documents. If they told this information, Kerry and the DNC would be no more.

In the meantime we are expected to prove the documents are forged. Actually, and logically, they should be proving they are authentic since one can not disprove a negative.

[Kozak]

212 975 3691

CBS newsroom

[EternalVigilance]

The 'secret' about the source of the forged memo is right out in front of the world's eyes, if anyone cares to see.

It was one obvious key element in the DNC/Kerry campaign's coordinated 'Fortunate Son' attack on the President.

[GoLightly]

Too bad no one got Ms. "Bush got what he deserved" on the record.

[pointsal]

Is the spin on the meaning "IS"?

[RS]

"Exactly right. By failing to stand behind the authenticity of the memos, they have tacitly admitted that they're fake."

""we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing..""

I find this interesting, since so far they have shown NO effort into answering those questions is a RE-doubling ( 4x? ) nothing going to do any good ?

[RS]

"Exactly right. By failing to stand behind the authenticity of the memos, they have tacitly admitted that they're fake."

""we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing..""

I find this interesting, since so far they have shown NO effort into answering those questions is a RE-doubling ( 4x? ) nothing going to do any good ?

[marty60]

Well then they are stupid lawyers. Dan Rather keeps ADMITTING they are fake. He has repeated over and over, the memo's RELECT (to give back an image of;mirror or reproduce) in other words. It doesn't matter when they were written. They are the urban legend in Texas therefore they are true. The other alphabets have caught this little cutsey trick with words, and they smell blood.

[snopercod]

The professional suicide of Dan Rather and CBS is just a bonus.

Ain't this fun to watch?

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

Just sit down and use MS Word to draft an alleged 1975 memo in the name of a Columbian drug lord who claims he supplied GWB with nothing but the best.

Dear Mr. Escobar:

Please send more cocaine. The son of a two-time congressperson from Texas snorted it all.

Sincerely,

John Gotti