Commission to Investigate Source of Memos-Burkett Admits Lies

[BlueNomad]

CBS: Bush documents can't be verified
'We shouldn't have used them,' executive states
MSNBC staff and news service reports

Updated: 12:45 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2004

NEW YORK - CBS on Monday said it cannot vouch for the authenticity of documents used to support a "60 Minutes" story about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service after several experts denounced them as fakes

The network said that while it was "deliberately misled," it was wrong to go on the air with a story that it could not substantiate.
"Based on what we know now, CBS News can't prove the documents are authentic," CBS President Andrew Heyward said in a statement. "We shouldn't have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret. Nothing is more important to us than our credibility and keeping faith with the millions of people who count on us for fair, accurate, reliable and independent reporting. We will continue to work tirelessly to be worthy of that trust."
....

CBS said Burkett, a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, had provided the documents. In a press release accompanying Heyward's statement, CBS said that Burkett "also admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."...

Independent review coming
CBS also said it was commissioning an independent review of the incident, and will announce the names of the people conducting the review shortly....


<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6055248/>

[BlueNomad]

1. kick...

...

[fob]

2. This sounds like a perfect setup for taking a "false documents" hit

and then produce the correct originals. Afterall, they have a perfect blueprint of what questions will be raised on the documents and can reveal the story using that blueprint.

[Cicero]

3. Ok, so who supplied Burkett with the documents? (n/t)

[amber dog democrat]

9. Karl Rove perhaps

This is the sort of thing he does. Kerry's campaign was wise to give it a wide berth.

[cthrumatrix]

4. the title of the thread is wrong....

[DulceDecorum]

5. "Eppur si muove"

The truth, it seems, is more powerful than authority
http://www.cns.caltech.edu/~abacker/pub/Censure.htm

[MindPilot]

6. Oh Puh--leese

One of the largest and most respected news-gathering organizations on the planet is trying to tell me it couldn't tell if the documents were fake or not? If this is a ploy, I can't really see how it is going to work in CBS's favor. If it's a screw-up then it is the kind of screw-up that requires a republican to pull off.

Me thinks CBS got some "orders" from the WH.

[Owlet]

10. Where was CBS legal staff?

As I understand it, the 'documents' supplied to CBS were photocopies. This in and of itself should have raised the antennae of any lawyer who reviewed them, as photocopies are always viewed with sceptcism - best evidence rule saying that original documents carry far greater weight.

At one time - Ed Murrow's day - CBS was viewed as "One of the largest and most respected news-gathering organizations on the planet" but they are just another corporate profit center today and, in my view, no longer have a claim to any kind of journalistic excellence.

They got conned because they were greedy for a scoop. Instead of making the story, they now are the story. A sorry way for Dan Rather's career to end.

[kidrocks]

7. Independent review ?

What are they going to review that they don't know already? Are they going to review that CBS fucked up? That Dan Blather rushed to put out a juicy piece on Bush without thinking? What fools!

[rhite5]

11. Don't jump to conclusions yet .....

Read this piece today by Greg Palast.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=371&row=1

The story is not the faked memos. The story is about media intimidation and censorship.. Palast shows that real authentication exists for all the claims in the fake memos. And it has been available for from 2-5 years and well published OUTSIDE the United States.

If this bru-ha-ha over fake memos ends up shining a bright light on the Bush Administration's Intimidation of the media, it will turn out to be the best thing that could have happened for all of us.

Here's a paragraph from Palast's piece:

This is not a story about Dan Rather. The white millionaire celebrity can defend himself without my help. This is really a story about fear, the fear that stops other reporters in the US from following the evidence about this Administration to where it leads. . 

[Lerkfish]

13. LOL a lot of low total posters gleefully jumping on this story...

*grabs popcorn*

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x840902

[funnymanpants]

12. I told you so...

Yes, exactly as I have been trying to tell DUers for a week. Instead of listening, many posters went on the attack, accusing the messenger (who was actually another DUer with the name of radius) of being a Republican operative.

CBS really screwed up big time.