CBS stock is down 5 days in a row . .
Posted on 09/25/2004 8:48:15 AM PDT by GeneD
Filed at 11:17 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS News has shelved a ``60 Minutes'' report on the rationale for war in Iraq because it would be ``inappropriate'' to air it so close to the presidential election, the network said on Saturday.
The report on weapons of mass destruction was set to air on Sept. 8 but was put off in favor of a story on President Bush's National Guard service. The Guard story was discredited because it relied on documents impugning Bush's service that were apparently fake.
CBS News spokeswoman Kelli Edwards would not elaborate on why the timing of the Iraq report was considered inappropriate.
The report, with Ed Bradley as the correspondent, has long been in the works. Originally scheduled for June, it was first put off because of new developments, Edwards said.
CBS said no other reports on the presidential election have been affected.
The network last week appointed former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief executive Louis Boccardi to investigate what went wrong with the National Guard report and recommend changes.
The controversy has put CBS News officials squarely on the fire line, particularly anchor Dan Rather, who narrated the National Guard report.
Meanwhile, the network announced that Rather would anchor the network's coverage of all three presidential debates, starting Sept. 30.
Who cares. It's not like we need CBS to tell us that trying to create democracy with a bunch of iraqis is stupid.
Ostensibly and evidently right.
CBS stock is down 5 days in a row . .
Didn't they get their "documents" forged in time?
According to another more detailed report in The New York Times today, this CBS report was going to recycle the Joe Wilson canard that Bush told a lie (based on forged documents) about Iraq trying to buy yellowcake from Niger, and went to war on this basis. However, The New York Times reporter doesn't point out that Bush's statement referred to British intelligence which was independent of those forged documents, and was later upheld by a British investigation and by a U.S. Senate intelligence investigation. Both of these investigations said that reports of Saddam Hussein trying to obtain yellowcake from Africa were "well founded" - and as a result, Joseph Wilson was discredited.
If CBS had aired this documentary, based on Joseph Wilson's contentions, they would have been even further discredited.
Incidentally, The New York Times reporter says that the Bush Administration later admitted that the content of the forged documents was untrue. The Bush Administration never said it was untrue. They said that the documents that they had in their possession were forgeries but that the British had separate intelligence which they continued to stand by. So The Times is lying as well as CBS. What else is new?
hahahaaa! :^D
Wouldn't put it past her, but she'll never have half the brains/cunning/treachery as our former first lady.
(Wonder who that could be?)
As if there was really any doubt.
"Rathergate" won't be treated as such within CBS, as Mary Mapes is indeed going to be the fall person for this, regardless of how involved Rather truly was in that story.
Keep the pressure up on the affiliates, is all I can say. Otherwise, Gunga Dan walks away scot free on this one.
Dan (What's the frequency Kenneth?) is so done.
5.56mm
Last nite I e-mailed my local CBS affiliate here in SW Missouri, praising their programming and professionalism over the last 40-odd years I've watched them, and commented on the increasingly vitriolic and personal hatred exhibited by Dan Rather and his ilk toward the Bush family, and stated that regretfully, I could no longer trust ANYTHING from CBS News or 60 Minutes. Therefore, I and my extended family would no longer watch their station during CBS' News and 60 Minutes, and would boycott all advertisers of those programs, both national and local, until Rather and his ilk are terminated, and an apology tendered to President Bush, PUBLICLY. Don't expect to see it, but the affiliates are beginning to make sentiments like this known to the network and some have even canceled carrying those programs. That hits them where it hurts......in the pocketbook, and hopefully more viewers will do the same with their own local stations. Just MHO.
Actually ratings are down I don't know why CBS don't just let Dan Rather GO
I don't get CBS news bunch of old farts got punk by Freeper Buckehead
The 9/11 Commission report. They had to figure out how to work around the fact that even that biased group said the Niger/Yellowcake story was never debunked and evidence actually buttresses that intelligence. Oh, they issued the report technically in July, but by June I'm sure media realized this angle was not playing out as they'd like so they had to tweak.
"The 9/11 Commission report"
That's right! Thanks. The old Wilson story was very much blown wasn't it. That supports my take on CBS spiking it now. Can't have anything now that might look like it validates GW can we?
You have summed it up well. That is exactly how Newsweek reported the story was going to air, also, and according to their story (And Newsweek's tone betrayed no concern about this impending "journalistic" approach) CBS was going to revert to the original Wilsonian spin and ignore all recent findings.
I guess CBS realized some viewers might raise an objection or 50 and be able to document the problems with their tall tale.
One interesting sidenote was Newsweek reported that liberal blogger Joshua Michael Marshall was a consultant for CBS. This is breathtaking. I think Marshall is connected to Wilson.
Thanks.
When Koppel with the dead former whining weasel on the top of his head makes a statement like that. You know that their focus groups show a huge loss in the eyes of those who used to watch the NotNews programs on ABCNNBC BS.
Before this election Rather will be symbolic to lying to the American people.
Yep. We've known that for quite a while now.
Many other folks will finally have figured it out.
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