Hmmmmm.... Dan Rather "Managing Editor"..... What are the
responsibilities of the "Managing Editor"?
....The report reveals that Rather assured CBS News President Andrew Heyward that he, Rather, had not “been involved in this much checking on a story since Watergate,” and that it was “very big.” The report says that Rather assured Heyward that the story was “thoroughly vetted” or documented and verified.....
....Page #114 - [Andrew] Heyward also told the Panel that Rather said he had not "been involved in this much checking on a story since Watergate."....
....Oddly, and perhaps covered in better detail later, the report takes no definite position on the documents themselves. Neither does CBS hold Dan Rather responsible for any of the damage, even though the Thornburgh-Boccardi report points out specifically that one of the major failings of CBS was its "inaccurate press statements issued by CBS News after the broadcast of the Segment that the source of the documents was “unimpeachable” and that experts had vouched for their authenticity" -- statements made by Dan Rather.....
....The false statement in the September 8 Segment that an expert had authenticated the Killian documents when all he had done was authenticate one signature from one document used in the Segment.... Dan Rather got on the air and flat lied to the American people.....
....The inaccurate press statements issued by CBS News after the broadcast of the Segment that the source of the documents was “unimpeachable” and that experts had vouched for their authenticity.... The misleading stories defending the Segment that aired on the CBS Evening News after September 8 despite strong and multiple indications of serious flaws.... The panel has found that they lied. When Dan Rather made the conscious decision to lie to the American people, he sealed his fate. Dan should be fired.....
....Dan said during his report that he had them vouched for by a person that had seen the actual documents in the 70's. No such person existed and that was a lie.....
....Starr 60 told Mapes that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett was trying to determine the best way to disseminate the information to journalists "without leaving any fingerprints."....
....Today I am going to send the following hypothetical scenario to a reliable, trustable editor friend of mine . . . What if there was a person who might have some information that could possibly change the momentum of an election but we needed to get an ASAP book deal to help get us the information? What kinds of turnaround payment schedules are possible, keeping in mind the book probably could not make it out until after the election . . . . What I am asking is in this best case hypothetical scenario, can we get a decent sized advance payment, and get it turned around quickly.....
....Dan Rather understands this. On page 208 we learn that "Rather informed the Panel that he still believes the content of the documents is true because 'the facts are right on the money,' and that no one had provided persuasive evidence that the documents were not authentic."....
....The report shows that there were multiple credible sources to prove that Bush did not try to avoid Vietnam by going into the National Guard and that he was in fact willing to go to Vietnam as a pilot. However, CBS News deliberately kept this information from its viewers and conveyed an opposite impression because Rather, Mapes & Company were trying to depict Bush as a coward who, as Commander-in-Chief, was sending American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq.”....
.... (Mapes) had been informed that there was no waiting list for President Bush's TexANG unit at the time he entered. She posited the "darkest spin" that then-Colonel Walter Staudt, then in charge of the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, deliberately kept these spots open "to take in the children of privilege...while maintaining deniability." Mapes told the Panel that she never found any proof for this theory.....
....The report, often in harsh and condemnatory language, specifically finds that the program misrepresented what CBS had been told by document examiners. It says, with respect to the interview with Robert Strong, that "virtually every excerpt used from the Lieutenant Strong interview was either inaccurate or misleading." And it concludes that the Ben Barnes interview excerpts were "misleading."....
....The Panel asked Rather about his interview with Marcia Kramer. Rather said that he did not want to do the interview or the apology on September 20, but Heyward and Schwartz asked him to do so. Rather said that he made his case as to why an apology was not appropriate and that management did not agree with him. Rather agreed to do the apology on September 20 and the Marcia Kramer interview because he is a “team player.” Rather informed the Panel that he still believes the content of the documents is true because “the facts are right on the money,” and that no one had provided persuasive evidence that the documents were not authentic.
It is clear that Rather’s joining in the apology given his role as the correspondent on the Segment and his status as CBS News’ most visible presence was critical to its acceptance. The Panel finds his comments disavowing the apology to be troubling, notwithstanding that he said he regarded himself as carrying out what CBS News felt was in its best interest on September 20.....
....(cBS) desire to beat other liberal publications to the punch is obvious evidence of liberal bias. And where did CBS hear inklings of the existence of the fabricated documents with which to smear Bush? From a website with the banner, "Bush Lied, Americans Died."....
....In questioning before the panel, Rather stood by his forgery. And so what does CBS do? It sends him back into the field. That's right: CBS is willing to continue to entrust its anchor's chair and high-profile reporting assignments to the only journalist in America who still believes those documents could be real.....
....(The cBS) report makes the open-and-shut case that the faked-documents story was designed and intended to sway the results of the 2004 election - and that it was rushed to air to achieve precisely this aim.....
....Dan Rather had helped raised $20,000 for the Travis County Democrats in 2001. David Van Os, the lawyer for Bill Burkett, the crackpot who gave Rather the fabricated documents, is a former chairman of the Travis County Democrats..... |
