CBS to admit memo's are fake...

[Ned]

"But officials decided yesterday that they would most likely have to declare that they had been misled about the records' origin after Mr. Rather and a top network executive, Betsy West, met in Texas with a man who was said to have helped the news division obtain the memos, a former Guard officer named Bill Burkett.

Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos had come from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted. These people indicated that Mr. Burkett had previously led the producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, to have the utmost confidence in the material.

It was unclear last night if Mr. Burkett had told Mr. Rather that he had been misled about the documents' provenance or that he had been the one who did the misleading.

In an e-mail message yesterday, Mr. Burkett declined to answer any questions about the documents.

Yesterday, Emily J. Will, a document specialist who inspected the records for CBS News and said last week that she had raised concerns about their authenticity with CBS News producers, confirmed a report in Newsweek that a producer had told her that the source of the documents said they had been obtained anonymously and through the mail.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20guard.html?ei=5006&en=42f1be2f0a0efa9d&ex=1096344000&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=

[Ned]

It does look like Rather is going to "break" the story that memo's were fake.

If Burkett claims that the memos came in e-mail, he should know from whom. The Kerry campaign and even Karl Rove are still not off the hook on this one.

[chequita guevara]

It turns out that CBS was still trying to autheticate the documents on the morning of the broadcast. The reason they stopped, apparently, was that they showed the documents to the White House press secretary, and he did not challenge them. To CBS, this was confirmation of the validity of the documents.

This, to anyone outside the situation, seems to be an obvious mistake. If the documents were fake (as they indeed turned out to be), how would the White House be aware of their existence, in order to have an opinion on the matter. More importantly, failure to disclaim does not mean confirmation.

Why they made this mistake will be hotly debated. Conservatives, I'm sure, will claim that it is because the liberal media is out to get Bush. A more accurate portrayal looks into the mechanism of how the media opertes, and realizing that scoops and controversey mean ratings, and that such a gem as they had needed to be persued quickly in order to avoid being scooped.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

While your point may indeed be valid regarding the need to get the scoop it does not pass the sniff test when comparing to the similar treatments given SBV's (of which a number of their claims have now been found true at least to the point where kerry has changed his story.)

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
This, to anyone outside the situation, seems to be an obvious mistake. If the documents were fake (as they indeed turned out to be), how would the White House be aware of their existence, in order to have an opinion on the matter. More importantly, failure to disclaim does not mean confirmation.

I doubt they're bright enough for it to be a set-up.

[pchang]

Dan Rather has been accused of bias many times during the course of his career. Some of those allegations clearly had no basis, but some of them have. Over the course of time, enough of these allegations have accumulated to make me believe that Dan Rather is biased. However, I think Dan Rather will escape this episode by throwing producer Mary Mapes under the bus.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Dojo

You miss Che's point. He is saying that lack of response from WH was to be expected given they were fake as they would have no informed opinion on the matter. If I read correctly he is in no way implying set up from that particular statement. (He may think otherwise but from his statement it would be logical to conclude lack of opinion would be a normal response IF documents wre forged.)

[GePap]

The media never pays heavily for any mistake- we forget too quickly, and Americans like to forgive most of the time.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Dojo

You miss Che's point. He is saying that lack of response from WH was to be expected given they were fake as they would have no informed opinion on the matter. If I read correctly he is in no way implying set up from that particular statement.

You are correct.

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Dojo

You miss Che's point. He is saying that lack of response from WH was to be expected given they were fake as they would have no informed opinion on the matter. If I read correctly he is in no way implying set up from that particular statement. (He may think otherwise but from his statement it would be logical to conclude lack of opinion would be a normal response IF documents wre forged.)

Right, sorry. My comment was just that. Not intended to portray Che's statement in any particular vein. Apologies Che.

[chequita guevara]

No insult taken.

[PLATO]

Does anybody remember Rather saying that his source was "unimpeechable"?? Does anybody believe that Bill Burkett was this "unimpeechable" source? If you do, then you don't have any idea who he is.

[Shi Huangdi]

In case anyone wants a good laugh, go check out the forums at www.democraticunderground.com The reactions are truly hilarious! Everything from this being a Rove plant, to people STILL saying the memos ar real, to people saying this string of events will help Kerry.

Anyone, this story goes to show the old Washington saying: "It's not the scandal, it's the cover up."

Had CBS retracted the story shortly after publication, and apologized for the journalistic error and claimed that they had been handed false info early on, it wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal. But they dragged this out, and they really hurt their credibility.

[chequita guevara]

DU, Echo chambers are always bad places to be.

[The diplomat]

This is what I hate about the so-called "mainstream media". They tarnish the reputation of a president, and then after the damage is done, they are like "oops, we kinda lied. sorry!". Of course the damage is donw, and they get away with it.