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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (94076)	1/6/2005 6:39:06 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793890

Rathergate: What Is Taking So Long? By Bob Kohn This might be a good time to consider what might be taking so long for former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and retired A.P. president Louis Boccardi to release their report on what has become known as "Rathergate." First, from a business perspective, public relations professionals will tell you that when you have bad news to release, try to accompany it with something newsworthy--so that some of the attention will be drawn to the neutral or positive news. In this case, if CBS were to announce the appointment of, say John Roberts, or better, Katie Couric, as its replacement for Dan Rather, you know that much of the discussion will circle around the appointment, rather than the guts of what is expected to be a highly critical report. Though I have no inside knowledge of the situation, I'm reasonably certain that such publicity considerations are playing a role in the delay. The trick is to negotiate the new anchor's contract without trying the patience of Thornburgh and Boccardi, who, presumably, would like to get this behind them as soon as possible and who should also be immune to CBS's business considerations. Another more serious set of considerations concerns the potential legal consequences of the report. First, the forging of government documents is a crime in Texas; there are also laws against aiding and abetting a crime--and just about everyone involved could get caught up in that kind of mess. Second, we already know that Bill Burkett--Dan Rather's "unimpeachable" source--has already hired a lawyer. And it is more than likely Mary Mapes, the producer of the forged memo segment, has also hired an attorney. Mapes may even had her attorney help her draft the 60-page memo she reportedly submitted to the investigators. Expect these people to be making veiled threats of libel, and, who knows, harrassment of some nature. Then, of course, there was an unsubstantiated rumor on the net (I forget where) that the Texas attorney general's office was considering an investigation of the matter. If CBS has been notified of such an investigation, then they would be obligated to save every draft of the independent report, plus all background material, such as notes of interviews with CBS employees, emails regarding the investigation, etc. To destroy any of this would open everyone involved, even those conducting the investigation, to charges of obstruction of justice. Ask Martha Stewart and the accountants at Arthur Anderson LLP all about what that could mean. Finally, as to why release tomorrow, a Friday, rather than today? As publicity people will tell you, it's always better to release bad news late on Friday, relegating news coverage of the event to the weekend, a time when fewer people are likely to hear about it. By the time the TV and talk radio pundits get to it on Monday, it will seem like old news. I seriously thought, perhaps, CBS would issue the report on any day except a Friday, to avoid charges that they are trying to bury the bad news. We'll see.