CBS can't authenticate documents

CBS has finally admitted that they are unable to authenticate the documents in regards to President Bush's National Guard record.

Unidentified CBS officials told The New York Times that CBS executives said they are now beginning to believe the report that first publicized the documents was too flawed to even have gone on the air. The Washington Post also reported the story.

www.foxnews.com...


The news report from CBS

CBS/AP) CBS News on Monday said it regretted broadcasting a story about President Bush's military service based on documents whose authenticity is in doubt, saying the source of the material had misled the network.

www.cbsnews.com...

[edit on 20-9-2004 by build319]

Rather sad situation, don't ya think?
Seems that Rather and CBS should have authenticated such fabricated BS rather than go ahead with the airing of 60 Minutes II and spreading the rather fabricated BS as subjective "truth", huh?

It would appear that Rather and CBS are on a fast track to a rather imploding event......



seekerof

CBS, bound by ethics to protect its source for the documents, no longer has any reason NOT to divulge the source that burned them.

There is no journalistic reason this should not become the main story now.

The one and only reason CBS could have for not doing a full disclosure at this time would be because it may lead straight to the Kerry campaign or DNC or both.

***Wiping the look of MOCK SHOCK, from my face*****

Seekerof,

It really shows how easy it is to believe something, when you WANT it
to be true. I think you are right about the imploding, they are STILL doing everything but fessing up. It's going to get worse for them. And Rather,
I don't know what to say about him, other than, it's OVER DUDE, time to go fishing. Fishing is perfect, you are expected to tell WHOPPERS, it's part of the sport

In fairness I think that the same people screaming that the swiftboat group is a bunch of lying bastards who are maligning Kerry should say the same thing about these documents and the man who may indeed have fabricated them.

CBS has made a somewhat common mistake by "trusting" a source without properly investigating. It's a problem in journalism where the race to be the first one to break THE earthshattering story becomes so heated that you don't even look into what you're saying.

Egg on the face is sufficient. I don't think there's any reason for Dan Rather to resign. He, and CBS as a whole look stupid now. They reported a story that didn't exist. A story that was constructed to damage a candidate. So... CBS was a patsy. I still don't think Rather should be fired for it. CBS might want to consider hiring someone to investigate their stories though, one would think an operation that size would have resources to avoid such embarassing flops.

I wouldnt be suprised that CBS will hang Rather out to dry. He is the figure head of this entire controversy and he will be the one to take the damage. CBS could salvage their reputation much faster by giving Rather the proverbial boot and saying it was his personal crusade to find dirts in G.W. Bush.

Originally posted by Phoenix
CBS, bound by ethics to protect its source for the documents, no longer has any reason NOT to divulge the source that burned them.

Burkett has already 'outted' himself. He also outted the former sen.
on Kerry's staff that he was in collaberation with. It's just a matter
of time to see if that staff member outs Kerry himself.

Originally posted by build319
I wouldnt be suprised that CBS will hang Rather out to dry

He's useless to CBS now. Worse... he's a ball and chain for CBS.
You are right. They HAVE to dump Rather. If they don't, they'll
never recover.

Personally I think CBS is a little late in doing this. Considering that the document experts that CBS consulted before Rather aired these documents told CBS NOT to air them because they could NOT be authenticated and it would lead to a lot of problems, I think CBS should have handled this MUCH differently.
I lost ALL respect for them when they kept saying they would make an announcement and then instead opted to show their point of view on 60 Minutes II which stressed that the documents could be forged but the content was true. They were trying to take all responsiblity off of themselves as passing on false information and instead trying to continue with the content of the false documents.
Sorry, but IMHO, admitting these were faked this late in the game is totally unacceptable and there is no way they can redeem their credibility.

Jemison

I was watchng a news report about a story they did in 1988 about a guy in vietnam who they found out later never was IN vietnam. I wonder how many stories in the past 30 years now 60 minutes held the same ethics as this memoscandal? ALL of their news stories are in question now.

CBS, hmmmmm, Communist Bull Sh(feces) Network comes to mind, in any event, we are talking "forged" documents. Is that not illegal? I mean, is there an arrest imminent? What about slander, libel?

Tis a shame journalism has become partisan

Tis a shame

I think the whole mess will blow over with minimal problems. Danno may hang out to dry for this, but I doubt it.

CBS's biggest mistake was the persistance of them trying to prove these documents and the message of the documents were accurate. They needed to cut out all the B.S. and shut up about it and they would be in a much better position right now.

I wonder if the reason why CBS went to the mat on this was because they had Max Cleveland verify the documents from the Kerry camp. I wonder if the DNC will withdraw thier favored son add now? Probably not.