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

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

[potlatch]

Thanks for the ping ntnychik. I read that Dan was running around in Texas the past few days, sounds like he didn't find what he wanted to find!!

[BoBToMatoE]

Will he apologize to the President for trying to destroy him?

---

HAHAHAHAAHAHA! Are you kidding me? I am guessing that Rather will be VERY snide about the situation and the "annoucment" will be very condescending. I expect a pay back piece of some sort from Rather in short order.

Remember the MSM and the Kerry campaign are in tight collusion. We snuffed out one of their October suprises, I wonder what they have left. I am sure it will be equally as damning and made up.

The only difference is that they will be more careful at how to decieve the public at large.

[Hank All-American]

"Mistakes were made."

"It was a bureaucratic SNAFU."

"Nobody here is certain who hired Dan Rather."

[Terabitten]

Oh, fear not, I agree. Once the source comes out, it's gonna be like lancing a particularly ugly boil. All the nastiness is going to spill out, and quickly.

Rather's gonna be lucky if he avoids federal time when all is said and done.

[BoBToMatoE]

Fact is, there are a LOT of VERY serious issues that should be pushed HARD about the documets.

1. The widow and son were IGNORED
2. Document experts were IGNORED
3. Hodges was MISLED
4. The old secretary was NOT INTERVIEWED until afterward
5. The opinions of the experts were MISREPRESENTED
6. The swift boat veterans were MALIGNED
7. George Bush's roomate DURING HIS GUARD YEARS, who AGREED TO SPEAK TO THEM WAS TURNED DOWN BECAUSE HE WAS TOO "PRO BUSH"...

And the list goes on. Fact is, this was a HIT PIECE ON BUSH. And just because dnCBS owns up to fake documents does NOT CLEAR THEIR PROPAGANDA / DNC REPORTING!!

If the documents were the ONLY ISSUE in this, without all of the other plainly propaganda driven results, it wouldn't be such an issue.

THE DOCUMENTS ARE JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! THE ICEBERG IS THE MANIPULATION AND DECEPTION OF THE PUBLIC!!

---

Yup.

[Travis McGee]

Rather will be gone by October.

[George Smiley]

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.

It sounds very much like

"We had to destroy the memos in order to save them."

[ClancyJ]

How many more fake documents have been used over the years for 60 Minutes II? Is this how CBS verifies proof for their hit pieces? Ignore the doubts of the experts?

Dan Rather is at fault no matter how CBS tries to cover it up and put the blame on the White House, the GOP, Mapes, or any others.

[concerned about politics]

I will always believe that Rather and CBS knew, or at least assumed, that the memos were fake. Rather and CBS decided to take the risk anyway because they confidently figured that they would get away with their journalistic fraud the same way they have always gotten away with it over the decades.

Yep. They never expected anyone to question them.

[Fabozz]

"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."

"Here, Dan, sit at the head of the conference table—we've got a special new chair for you."

[Jewels1091]

Anytime it has to do with VietNam or a member of the Bush family...

[Cats Pajamas]

But the seed is planted right? Tell me does this make sense, Kerry, Rather, Moore, McAuliffe, Carville, most importantly both the Clintons, they all know the playbook. There are statistics on this somewhere, which is why they do focus groups. The statistics are people pay attention to 70% of how one looks, 20% percent of how one sounds and only 10% is paid to what one says. They know this and it works just beautifully.

[ArmyBratproud]

'duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhh, courage" -RATher

[occutegirl]

Rather sure broke that story.

[YaYa123]

"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."

Mary Mapes, you was had! (I hope Mapes understand, she's gotta walk the plank for Dan.)

[Semi Civil Servant]

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.

CBS News couldn't figure out where all the fur came from after the Teddy Bear Picnic.

[NavySEAL F-16]

"The editorial story line was still intact, and still is, to this day,"he said.

This whole story needs a good fisking.

Every line in it is mangled logic.

And, they are still trying to blame the White House for not telling them the documents were forged.

[Servant of the 9]

it was mounting an intensive news investigation of where they came from.

They based a major story on anonymous documents that came in over the Fax Line?

Not even a highschool paper would be stupid enough to do that.
This is another coverup attempt.

So9

[Choose Ye This Day]

With this whole "chain of custody" nonsense, and Rather's idiotic, quixotic "we stand behind our flawed reporting, forgeries and all, because the general gist of it is true" line of defense...

Wouldn't this be an IDEAL time for the GOP to surreptitiously bring Sandy Berger up again? It could really drive home the essential message:

1) The Dems can't tell the truth
2) The MSM will gladly help them lie
3) The Dems can't be trusted with matters of national security

Sandy Berger has gotten a free pass the last four or five weeks. I think it's time to start demanding some answers there, as well.