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January 10, 2005
CBS News fires four over 'Rathergate'
In response to a panel report that condemned CBS News for its sloppy reporting and overzealous defense of its sloppy reporting, the network has decided to fire four of those implicated in a story about George W. Bush's Air National Guard service.
The panel was established by CBS to investigate how it went to air with a story that cast serious doubt on the credibility of Mr. Bush (who was at the time seeking re-election as President) on the basis of documents whose origin and authenticity could not be established.
The panel was scathing in its criticism of the segment that aired on 60 Minutes Wednesday saying that, "basic journalistic steps were not carried out in a manner consistent with accurate and fair reporting," but brutal in its condemnation of the Network's response to the criticism the segment garnered in both the new and mainstream media. The panel says that in the face of criticism, the Network chose to air news stories defending the segment instead of providing balanced coverage of the controversy surrounding the segment.
The panel believes CBS failed in part because it began to believe that because the content of the questionable documents was accurate, the documents themselves must have been accurate. That failure of common sense and logic coupled with the decision to rush the story to air and poor supervision by CBS brass caused a bad piece of journalism to be broadcast. The panel goes on to say that the Network's strident defense of the segment - including allowing those who had erred in the first segment to produce follow-ups, inaccurate press statements about the segment and misleading news stories (they lied and called it news) - compounded an already bad situation.
The report only briefly addresses the allegation of the right-wing blogs in the United States that CBS News, in general, and Dan Rather, in particular, are biased against the Republicans. The panel tears a strip off a 60 Minutes Wednesday producer who phoned a senior operative in the campaign of Mr. Bush's opponent John Kerry to discuss the story and ask him to speak with the source of the documents. They say that call was a "clear conflict of interest" and "created the appearance of a political bias," but they do not believe political motivations drove the story.
It is a damning report and will further damage the reputation of CBS News. With American network news in a downward spiral, it is hard to imagine CBS will ever recover.
Further Reading:
CBS Ousts 4 For Bush Guard Story (CBS News)
Complete Independent Panel report on CBS News
Official CBS News reaction and actions taken
CBS ousts 4 over Bush Guard story (CNN)
CBS fires 4 execs over Bush military story (CTV News)
CBS sacks four over Bush report (BBC)
CBS Guilty of 'Myopic Zeal' Over Bush Story - Report (Reuters)
Posted by maxthecat on January 10, 2005 at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
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