CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say

New York Times ^ | 9/20/04 | Jim Rutenberg

[LibWhacker]

After days of expressing confidence about the documents used in a "60 Minutes'' report that raised new questions about President Bush's National Guard service, CBS News officials have grave doubts about the authenticity of the material, network officials said last night.

Those officials, who asked not to be identified, said CBS News would most likely make an announcement as early as today that it had been deceived about the documents' origins, and that it was mounting an intensive news investigation of where they came from.

But these people cautioned that CBS News could still pull back from an announcement. Officials were meeting last night with Dan Rather, the anchor who presented the report, to go over the information it has collected about the documents one last time before making a final decision.

People at the network said it was now possible that officials would open a formal internal inquiry into how it moved forward with the report, which officials now say they are beginning to believe was too flawed to have gone on the air.

The report relied in large part on four memorandums purported to be from the personal file of Mr. Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, who died 20 years ago. The memos, dated from the early 1970's, said that Colonel Killian was under pressure to "sugar coat'' the record of the young Lieutenant Bush and that the officer had disobeyed a direct order to take a physical.

Mr. Rather and others at the network are said to still believe that the sentiment in the memos accurately reflected Mr. Killian's feelings, but that the documents' authenticity is now in grave doubt.

The developments last night marked a dramatic turn for CBS News, which for a week stood steadfastly by its Sept. 8 report as various document experts asserted that the typeface of the memos could have been produced only by a modern-day word processor, not Vietnam War-era typewriters.

The seemingly unflappable confidence of Mr. Rather and top news division officials in the documents allayed fears within the network and created doubt among some in the news media at large that those specialists were correct. CBS News officials had said they had reason to be certain that the documents indeed came from the personal file of Colonel Killian.

Sandy Genelius, a network spokeswoman, said last week, "We are confident about the chain of custody; we're confident in how we secured the documents.''

But officials decided yesterday that they would most likely have to declare that they were misled about the records' origin after Mr. Rather and a top network executive, Betsy West, met in Texas with a man who was said to have helped the news division obtain the memos, a former Guard officer named Bill Burkett.

Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos came from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted. These people indicated that Mr. Burkett had previously led the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, to have the utmost confidence in the material.

It was unclear last night whether Mr. Burkett told Mr. Rather that he had been misled about the documents' provenance or that he had been the one who did the misleading.

In an e-mail message yesterday, Mr. Burkett declined to answer any questions about the documents.

Yesterday, Emily J. Will, a document specialist who inspected the records for CBS News and said last week that she had raised concerns about their authenticity with CBS News producers, confirmed a report in Newsweek that a producer had told her that the source of the documents had said they were obtained anonymously and through the mail.

During an interview last night she declined to name the producer who told her this but said that the producer had been in a position to know. CBS News officials have disputed her contention that she warned the network the night before the initial "60 Minutes'' report that it would face questions from documents experts.

In the coming days CBS News officials plan to focus on how the network moved ahead with the report when there were warning signs that the memorandums were not genuine.

Ms. Will is one of two documents experts consulted by the network who said they raised doubts about the material before the segment was broadcast. Another expert, Marcel B. Matley, said in interviews that he had only vouched for Colonel Killian's signatures on the records and not the authenticity of the records themselves. Mr. Matley said he could not rule out that the signatures were cut and pasted from official records pertaining to Colonel Killian.

In examining where the network went wrong, officials at CBS News were turning their attention to Ms. Mapes, one of their most respected producers, who was riding particularly high this year after breaking news about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for the network.

In a telephone interview this weekend, Josh Howard, the executive producer of the "60 Minutes'' Wednesday edition, said he did not initially know who was Ms. Mapes' primary source for the documents but that he did not see any reason to doubt them. He said he believed Ms. Mapes and her team had appropriately answered all questions about the documents' authenticity and, he noted, no one seemed to be casting doubt upon the essential thrust of the report.

"The editorial story line was still intact, and still is, to this day,'' he said, "and the reporting that was done in it was by a person who has turned in decades of flawless reporting with no challenge to her credibility.''

He added, "We in management had no sense that the producing team wasn't completely comfortable with the results of the document analysis.''

Ms. Mapes has not responded to requests for comment.

Mr. Howard also said in the interview that the White House did not dispute the veracity of the documents when it was presented them on the morning of the report. That reaction, he said, was "the icing on the cake'' of the other reporting the network was conducting on the documents. White House officials have said they saw no reason to challenge documents that had been presented by a credible news organization.

Several people familiar with the situation said that they were girding for a particularly tough week for Mr. Rather and the news division should the network announce its new doubts.

One person close to the situation said the critical question would be, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?''

[Leroy S. Mort]

Mr. Rather and a top network executive, Betsy West, met in Texas with a man who was said to have helped the news division obtain the memos, a former Guard officer named Bill Burkett.

Betsy West appears to be pretty high up the food chain:

"Betsy West became Senior Vice President, Prime Time, CBS News, in June 2001. Before that, she was Vice President, Prime Time, CBS News (1998-2001). In that capacity, she oversees CBS News primetime broadcasts, including 60 Minutes Sunday and weekday and 48 Hours Mystery."

She was also apparantly involved in "sugar-coating" Private Jessica Lynch's interview deal:

"Attached you will find the outlines of a proposal that includes ideas from CBS News, CBS Entertainment, MTV Networks and Simon & Schuster publishers," wrote CBS News senior vice president Betsy West. "From the distinguished reporting of CBS News to the youthful reach of MTV, we do believe this is a unique combination of projects that will do justice to Jessica's inspiring story."

[Mo1]

While it can be argued that the government has no role in the Rathergate National Guard memo fiasco,

What about them being faxed from Kinko's .. would that not fall under the category of wire fraud?

[devolve]

DS was an amateur

He should have worn PJs

I'm in dark blue sweats now myself; never be unable to make your move instantly

[Bonaparte]

Sandy Genelius, a network spokeswoman, said last week, "We are confident about the chain of custody; we're confident in how we secured the documents."

Yeah, Sandy, we want to know about that "chain of custody" you're confident about. Let's start with the first in the "chain of custody" and how he or she obtained these "memos."

[GATOR NAVY]

It burns me that I won't be watching the season premieres this week of Everybody Love Raymond, King of Queens, etc.

Be sure that the sponsors of those shows know what you're doing and why. Otherwise, unless you're a Nielsen household, your not watching CBS won't have the slightest effect except to make you feel better (not that that's a bad thing).

[bt_dooftlook]

Great - then we can reexamine Mary's evidence and test it again for fraud...BTW, aren't Abu Ghraib trials starting soon?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What a farce, they are trying to hide the obvious......

[Graymatter]

By all means let's mention this now before the market opens in New York.

[bt_dooftlook]

Um - come to Buckhead!

[Bonaparte]

Mr. Rather and others at the network are said to still believe that the sentiment in the memos accurately reflected Mr. Killian's feelings...

These whackos at CBS still believe they can read the mind of a dead man they never even met? And they persist in this delusion despite the statements of killian's wife and son that they are dead wrong about the "personal file" and everything else?

[fish hawk]

Hey maybe 60 minutes will pick up on this Rathergate story and do a show on it. Dan will be out on assignment (unemployment line) and one of the other chaps can do it. Then Andy Rooney can say something clever about it too.

[tallhappy]

Their defense is stupidity?

Only honest thing they've said.

[L.N. Smithee]

"Grima Rathertongue?"

[ApplegateRanch]

I can't wait to hear CBS & Dan Rather reveal their "unimpeachable" source.

Anybody not holding high public office is "unimpeachable".

An "absolutely credible, scrupulously honest" source is something else altogether.

[Bonaparte]

CBS News officials have disputed her contention that she warned the network the night before the initial "60 Minutes" report that it would face questions from documents experts.

So now CBS is calling its own documents consultant a liar. Everybody's lying but them, right?

[bt_dooftlook]

It seems like we will have to have every Mapes story reviewed to see if she has consistently lied to smear GWB...

[Bonaparte]

One person close to the situation said the critical question would be, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?"

Yeah, everybody at CBS lost their minds on the same day. What are the odds?

[Bonaparte]

Excellent idea! In fact, I think all Bush and kerry stories from CBS should now undergo rigorous review for factual accuracy and bias. Oops, what am I saying. Bozell has already done this over at MRC and CBS flunked.

[hosepipe]

CBS News is a criminal enterprise and should be disenfranchised, NEXT... ABS and NBS....PBS is the worst offender of all...

[rolling_stone]

The main problem with this report is they started with a premise or story that they wanted to present and only used evidence that supported their theory. Any good investigator knows you get as many facts as possible and then arrive at a conclusion, (if possible) not start with a conclusion and try and get facts to match it.

They are not alone, it is a mindset of most of the MSM with a bias...That's what their internal investigation should show including every red flag they ignored and every opposing fact they ignored or refused to interview. Not rather biased, but very biased.

Had they honestly looked at both sides the story would have gone the other way, President Bush did serve honorably and complete his service.