Panel lays it on Tick
NY Daily News gossip
CBS News is girding for some very bad days at Black Rock, the network's midtown corporate headquarters where former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, retired Associated Press exec Louis Boccardi and a team of lawyers have been summoning news types for intense interrogations this week.
I hear that the grilling began Tuesday, with Thornburgh, Boccardi and the lawyers taking detailed notes on the testimony.
Around 20 key people - everyone from CBS News President Andrew Heyward to top anchor Dan Rather - are expected to trek from the Broadcast Center on W. 57th St. and submit themselves to the tender mercies of the independent panel probing how "60 Minutes Wednesday" managed to use apparently faked documents in a controversial report about President Bush's National Guard service.
News exec Linda Mason, vice president for standards and practices, has sent a memo to potential witnesses concerning the parameters of the investigation, which will result in a public report on the network's journalistic missteps.
Among those expected to be called are prime-time news vice president Betsy West, "60 Minutes Wednesday" exec Josh Howard, his deputy Mary Murphy, "CBS Evening News" exec Jim Murphy and, of course, "60 Minutes Wednesday" producer Mary Mapes - who oversaw Rather's flawed report on Bush.
I hear that folks are being told that their cooperation is "voluntary," but it's difficult to imagine the scenario in which someone can safely refuse. As for Mapes - the woman at the center of the scandal - "I think she'll be bringing her lawyer with her," a CBS type told me.
Yesterday, CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius had only this to say: "The panel's work is well underway, and that's it. There are no details, and we don't plan on releasing any until the report is final."
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