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Five weeks before the election, Tuesday's CBS Evening News attempted to legitimize baseless Internet rumors that President Bush secretly plans to revive the draft. Reporter Richard Schlesinger focused his piece around how one mother "is petrified about a military draft, and she's not alone. Mass e-mails are circulating among worried parents," as if the political spam had any merit. Instead of trying to allay the woman's fears with facts, Schlesinger instead asked: "Would you vote for a Democrat?" She replied: "Absolutely. I would vote for Howdy Doody if I thought it would keep my boys home and safe."

CBS News is again under fire for a story which aired Tuesday evening by CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger purporting to compare the views of President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry on the possibility of reinstituting the military draft. "It's no secret, the all-volunteer U.S. military, especially the Army, Marines, and many Reserve units, are stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan," CBS News anchor Dan Rather said leading into the segment. "So what about bringing back the draft? A lot of Americans are worried about that. Where do the presidential candidates stand?" The story was presented as part...

CBS News has tacitly admitted wrongdoing in not identifying that Beverly Cocco, the woman featured in its story about the draft. In the original CBS report, Cocco's membership in an anti-war group, People Against the Draft, was not disclosed. In a CBSNews.com piece based on the TV story, Cocco's membership was not revealed, either. After RatherBiased.com debunked the CBS report and criticized the network for once again featuring a member of a liberal group without revealing her political background, CBS News has since gone back and changed the online version of Richard Schlesinger's story. It now informs readers that Cocco...

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 I'm coo-coo for Cocco puffs! (And so's CBS News!) While drafting (pun recognized but not intended) and following up on my post below about CBS News' scandalous broadcasts intended to create fear among voters over the return of conscription, I stumbled upon an interesting chronologic sequence, prompted by Rathergate.com's reprint of a September 9th letter to the editor from CBS News' star draft-fearful soccer-mom, Ms. Beverly Cocco of Walton Park, PA, to the Northeast Times, which appears to be a Philadelphia News-owned local-events supplement (proudly serving "Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties and the Main Line")....

Five weeks before the election, CBS decided to give legitimacy to Internet rumors by devoting a "What Does It Mean to You?" segment to "fears" of a supposedly Bush-supporting mother that President Bush will impose a military draft. Dan Rather intoned: "A mother worries her son will be drafted. Does she have good reason?" Richard Schlesinger focused his piece around how the mother "is petrified about a military draft, and she's not alone. Mass e-mails are circulating among worried parents." Schlesinger pointed out how both Bush and Kerry deny that they'd institute a draft, but the mother is "not buying...

(CBS) CBS News continues an election-year series titled "What Does It Mean To You?" focused on where the presidential candidates stand on major issues and how a vote for one or the other candidate might affect average people's lives. In this report, CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger looks at what President Bush and Sen. John Kerry say about the possibilities of reinstituting the military draft. Beverly Cocco has spent most of her life protecting children in Philadelphia. She spends most of her time worrying about other people's kids. But as Election Day approaches, it's her own two grown sons who...