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Extra: CBS
News Apologizes Over Bush Guard Story
By
DAVID BAUDER
(Direct descendent of
Joseph Stalin! - tha malcontent)
AP Television Writer
Sept 20, 10:59 PM EDT
NEW YORK
(AP)
�
CBS News apologized Monday for a "mistake in
judgment" in its story questioning President Bush's National Guard service,
claiming it was misled by the source of documents that several experts have
dismissed as fakes.
(ap) - As I was saying 7 days ago,
this story is not going away. Dan Rather's (D) "Apology" is not going to
stop the questions that he has helped to Foster with his Arrogance regarding
Admitting the Obvious relating to these Forged Documents, Suspect Source, and
Recanting Experts and Sources that is SeeBS used when Slandering the President.
Dan Rather (D) continues to have a job today because he is Dan Rather (D).
One thing I want you to think about, and then I will let (D)an continue to take
the Rope willingly... Tonight on his Broadcast, he said that "we contacted you",
when he spoke with Burkett... Burkett was begging everyone from the Tabloids to
Triple Amputees who work for Kerry, to take the story. But (D)an said
tonight that HE contacted Burkett. The Kerry/Carville camp just happened
to launch "Fortunate Son" the same day... Keep this in mind also, Rather
accepted this Source that HE Requested via a Fax from a Kinkos where his
"friend" Burkett lives in Texas, and where Dan Rather (D) has spoken at DemocRAT
events in the past... This story is FAR from over! Your boy Ben Barnes,
Vice Chairman of Kerry 04, is also a Texan with ties to Dan Rather (D)...
Arrogance on the Part of "the man behind the curtain", will help to Guarantee
that Kerry will not be the 44th President! Something tells me that it's no
coincidence that HILLARY!'s Husband's Hatchet men are part of the fall for Kerry
also!... Time will tell. Here is a taste of what is to come: "CBS arranged
for meeting with Lockhart"...
http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+CBS+arranged+for+meeting+with+Lockhart&expire=&urlID=11703685&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fpoliticselections%2Fnation%2Fpresident%2F2004-09-20-cbs-documents_x.htm&partnerID=1660...
Enjoy!... - tha malcontent)
The network said it would appoint an independent panel to look at its reporting
about the memos. The story has mushroomed into a major media scandal,
threatening the reputations of CBS News and chief anchor Dan Rather.
It also has become an issue in the presidential campaign. The White House said
the affair raises questions about the connections between CBS's source, retired
Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, and Democrat John Kerry's campaign. A
Kerry adviser also said he had called Burkett at the request of a CBS producer.
Rather joined CBS News President Andrew Heyward in issuing an apology Monday.
"We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry," Rather said. "It was
an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to
carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or
favoritism."
Almost immediately after the story aired Sept. 8, document experts questioned
memos purportedly written by Bush's late squadron leader, Lt. Col. Jerry B.
Killian, saying they appeared to have been created on a computer and not on the
kind of typewriter in use during the 1970s.
CBS strongly defended its story. It wasn't until a week later - after Killian's
former secretary said she believed the memos were fake - that the news division
admitted they were questionable.
Burkett admitted this weekend to CBS that he lied about obtaining the documents
from another former National Guard member, the network said. CBS hasn't been
able to conclusively tell how he got them, or even definitely tell whether
they're fakes or not. But the network has given up trying to defend them.
"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are
authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using
them in the report," Heyward said. "We should not have used them."
CBS said it approached Burkett initially about the documents. Rather said
Burkett was well known in National Guard circles for several years for trying to
discredit Bush's military record.
Burkett, in an interview with Rather aired on the "CBS Evening News," said he
was pressured by CBS to reveal his source for the documents, and "I simply threw
out a name that was basically, I guess, to get a little pressure off for the
moment."
He said he didn't fake or forge any documents.
"I didn't totally mislead you," he said. "I did mislead you about one
individual."
Burkett said he also insisted that CBS authenticate the documents on its own.
Two document experts consulted by CBS later said they raised red flags that
network officials apparently disregarded. Rather acknowledged CBS failed to
properly determine whether the documents were genuine.
Burkett did not immediately return a phone call for comment from The Associated
Press.
Heyward told The Associated Press it was not clear what, if any, disciplinary
action would be taken against CBS News employees. Besides tainting the network's
flagship broadcast, "60 Minutes," the report was a damaging blow to Rather, 72.
Some have suggested the scandal, along with the low ratings of the "CBS Evening
News," could hasten Rather's retirement.
"Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our
ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully," Rather said.
Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press,
Politics and Public Policy, said it appeared to be an honest mistake by CBS, not
a willful attempt to deceive. But he said the network was too slow to respond.
"I think that their delaying and obvious resistance to acknowledge the evident
realities has kept the story alive a lot longer than it needed to be and was a
lot more damaging to CBS than it needed to be," he said.
For "60 Minutes," it's the biggest ethical mess since the 1995 incident captured
in the movie "The Insider," which depicted the newsmagazine caving to pressure
from CBS lawyers and not airing a whistleblowing report from an ex-tobacco
executive.
Jones said questions will probably center on the story's producer, Mary Mapes.
She's one of the network's top investigators and broke the story of the Abu
Ghraib prison abuse scandal photos. Her immediate boss is Josh Howard, recently
named executive producer of the "60 Minutes" Wednesday edition.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the White House appreciated
CBS's expression of regret but that there were still serious questions about
Burkett.
"Bill Burkett, who CBS now says is their source, in fact is not an unimpeachable
source as was previously claimed," McLellan said. "Bill Burkett is a source who
has been discredited and so this raises a lot of questions. There were media
reports about Mr. Burkett having senior level contacts with the Kerry campaign."
The Kerry campaign has said it had nothing to do with the story.
Burkett, a Democrat, sent an e-mail last month to several Texas Democrats,
saying he had passed along information to former Georgia senator and Kerry
supporter Max Cleland about information that would counter criticism of Kerry's
Vietnam War service.
Cleland said Monday that he does "not have any knowledge" about documents used
to support the "60 Minutes" story.
A Kerry adviser, Joe Lockhart, said he had called Burkett at the suggestion of
Mapes shortly before the documents were released. Lockhart said he listened to
some campaign advice from Burkett for a few minutes and does not recall talking
about Bush's guard records.
Asked about Mapes' involvement in the call, CBS spokeswoman Kelli Edwards said,
"This is an example of the kind of thing that the independent panel that will be
named in a few days will look into. When that review is complete, we will
comment."
She said Mapes is not commenting on the story.
Heyward told The AP he has "no reason to believe either the Kerry campaign or
the Bush campaign was involved in this."
"A lot of reporting went into this story," Heyward said. "It's not as if one
person's account was taken at face value."
The call for an independent review was reminiscent of CNN's "Tailwind" scandal
in 1998. The cable network retracted a story that the U.S. military had used
nerve gas in Laos during the Vietnam war.
CNN appointed independent panels to look into the "Tailwind" story and the
missed election calls of 2000. Both panels helped to restore trust in the
network and resulted in real changes to the networks' operation, said Tom
Johnson, CNN's chief executive at the time.
"As with all professions, we screw up at time," Johnson said. "We need to admit
it when we do."
The so-called Killian documents indicated he was being pressured to "sugarcoat"
the performance ratings of a young Bush, then the son of a former Texas
congressman, and that Bush failed to follow orders to take a physical. Killian
died in 1984.
Heyward said he did not think CBS' story was the result of any bias against
Bush. The National Guard service story was "a legitimate area of inquiry" that
several news organizations were pursuing, he said.
"The story of how this happened is going to be a much more interesting story
than the veracity of these documents," Jones said, "and I hope CBS will tell
it."
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(That depends on what the meaning of "may" is...
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