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Home Front: Politix
CBS Ousts 4 For Bush Guard Story
2005-01-10
Four CBS News employees, including three executives, have been ousted for their role in preparing and reporting a disputed story about President Bush's National Guard service. The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with willfully dishonest "rigid and blind" defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report.
Color me impressed.
Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard's deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Betsy West. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated. The correspondent on the story, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, is stepping down as anchor of CBS Evening News.
Which makes the body count five.
"We deeply regret the disservice this flawed 60 MinutesWednesday report did to the American public, which has a right to count on CBS News for fairness and accuracy," said CBS President Les Moonves.
And how did he manage to avoid getting sacked?
The panel said a "burning desire to wreck the President" "myopic zeal" to be the first news organization to broadcast a groundbreaking story about Mr. Bush's National Guard service was a key factor in explaining why CBS News had produced a story that was neither fair nor accurate and did not meet the organization's internal standards. The report said at least four factors that some observers described as a journalistic "Perfect Storm" had contributed to the decision to broadcast a piece that was seriously flawed. "The combination of a new 60 Minutes Wednesday management team, great deference given to a highly respected producer and the network's news anchor, competitive pressures, and a zealous belief in the truth of the segment seem to have led many to disregard some fundamental journalistic principles," the report said.
That's one way of putting it.
Posted by:Steve White

#20  See my comment above - NPR paychecks await them. Welfare for the incompetent and hopless MSMs who are found out!
Posted by: BigEd   2005-01-10 3:49:05 PM  

#19  I can't believe thay didn't boot Rather. Hey guys, he's the "managing editor", right? Not just an empty suit who reads whatever drivel they type into the teleprompter?

Where's Bruce Almighty when you need him?
Posted by: mojo   2005-01-10 2:55:53 PM  

#18  Hmmm...Rathergate reports that the delay of the report release was explained away as being due to the "complexity" of the story, but that the

...document we have is a .pdf file, created on January 5th, 2005. The orginal document used to CREATE that .pdf tells another story. It’s called, Microsoft Word - DC-685241-v10-Final_CBS_Report__sent_to_Lou_12_20_.DOC. December 20, 2004. 21 days ago.

They STILL don't understand how to operate a computer. Sheesh.
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-01-10 2:31:28 PM  

#17  Unless they took them into a room where there was a chair, a table, and on the table a pistol with one bullet in it...
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2005-01-10 1:39:58 PM  

#16  Wonder whether the TANG Colonel (Staudt?) will take legal action against CBS? This report doesn't get them off the hook; if anything, I'd guess it only gives Staudt ammo to pursue a defamation case.
Posted by: lex   2005-01-10 12:36:49 PM  

#15  Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Betsy West

How many Betsy Wests are were there at CBS?
Posted by: lex   2005-01-10 12:34:07 PM  

#14  There is no way in heck the MSM will admit political bias -- they simply will refuse to do it.

The sad part about this is that the MSM now thinks 'thats over - we had to sacrifice a few heads but we are still "the truth"' and they can get back to the same old bullshit and wonder why they are loosing viewship.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2005-01-10 12:30:10 PM  

#13  The swift departure of Mary Mapes. You are kidding, right?
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-10 12:12:28 PM  

#12  This is still about a 50% cover up.

If after all this time the investigators couldn't bring themselves to say this is a forgery, then the investigators didn't do there job.
Posted by: mhw   2005-01-10 12:08:49 PM  

#11  If I sound a little cranky, I just got back from a dentist who, based on the amount of drilling, thought the best place to achieve energy independence is my lower jaw.

So they're not prepared to brand the Killian documents as an outright forgery""? Is that for legal reasons or because they are dumber than stumps? If they can not say they are forgeries, why are they firing people? This is a white wash. These guys tried to influence an election with forgeries. Where do they think they are, King County Washington? They deserve worse, Moonves and Rather included.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-01-10 12:05:54 PM  

#10  Mary's book must be just about ready for publication.
Posted by: john   2005-01-10 11:38:55 AM  

#9  The swift departure of Mary Mapes makes me feel that they got the message that we will not stand by and be C BS'd. She is the central figure that bent over back to make a story of no substance into a News story. The fact that Moonves gets to stay says they have much to learn. Make no mistake, these are big fish that got tossed. Look for Mapes to start her own show on Air America, Public Radio, or maybe CNN.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2005-01-10 11:21:25 AM  

#8  Ha..if you ask me, it's like removing the visible tumor and leaving the infected lymph nodes.
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-10 11:20:56 AM  

#7  What mojo said. Plus, why does Andrew Heyward still have his job? But I guess 4/6 of loaf is better than none.
Posted by: GK   2005-01-10 11:19:59 AM  

#6  If Danny still has a job, somebody's not doing theirs.
Posted by: mojo   2005-01-10 10:59:51 AM  

#5  said CBS President Les Moonves.

color me unimpressed.
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-10 10:51:57 AM  

#4  What is the difference between U.S. MSM and Al Jizzum? Location, location, location.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-10 10:51:34 AM  

#3  The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece.

Oh? And which report is this? The one that was supposed to come in "weeks, not months"?

Out of curiosity, where is it?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-01-10 10:51:29 AM  

#2  I can hear the MSM death rattle. Good ridance to these elitist, lying, election-rigging bastards.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-10 10:48:46 AM  

#1  "...created the appearance of political bias."

Translation: We can have all the bias we want, but we can't give the appearance that would tip 'em off.

Still. This is better than expected.
Posted by: jackal   2005-01-10 10:46:33 AM  

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