I wonder if Joe Lockhart will fall on his sword, or if he will
implicate Kerry himself in this CBS Memo-gate? Did Kerry
know? Did he direct anything in regards to the fake memos?
Time will tell. But the situation keeps inching closer and
closer to Kerry himself.
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www.usatoday.com...
Excerpt -
CBS arranged for meeting with Lockhart
USA Today
September 20, 2004
By Kevin Johnson, Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard
WASHINGTON � CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to John Kerry, after the source provided the network with
the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on
Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents.
Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to
Lockhart.
Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.
The network's effort to place Burkett in contact with a top Democratic official raises ethical questions about CBS' handling of material potentially
damaging to the Republican president in the midst of an election. This "poses a real danger to the potential credibility ... of a news
organization," said Aly Col�n, a news ethicist at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
"At Burkett's request, we gave his (telephone) number to the campaign," said Betsy West, senior CBS News vice president.
MORE ARTICLE AT THE SITE.
The White House said CBS' contact with Lockhart was inappropriate. "The fact that CBS News would coordinate with the most senior levels of Sen.
Kerry's campaign to attack the president is a stunning and deeply troubling revelation," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director.
[edit on 9/21/2004 by FlyersFan]