CBS and Rather Admit Mistakes in Bush Documents 335
Vexler writes "The word this afternoon from CBS regarding the authenticity of the national guard memos of President Bush is that they cannot be trusted, confirming what several document experts had already suggested. In Dan Rather apologized for a 'mistake in judgment.' I have to wonder though: What would be the price CBS (or CNN, during the 2000 presidential election in which the final tally from Florida was changed several times before they realized that a recount may be needed) would pay for 'mistakes' of this type? What are some of your thoughts regarding 'moderating' (think /.) a news agency when it admits that more than just an honest mistake has been committed in its reporting?" There is still one big question remaining unanswered, too: who forged the memos? Where did they come from? Burkett, the man who provided them to CBS, won't say where he got them.
Re:Who did this damage more? (Score:3, Insightful)
Vote Tabulation (Score:5, Insightful)
Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:4, Insightful)
The point is that there are always going to be mistakes made. Demanding 100% accuracy is unrealistic and does more harm than good. Mistakes are only blameworthy if they are caused by carelessness. Not to say that CBS is not blameworthy, but we should be sure to ask the right questions here.
Criminal complaint? (Score:3, Insightful)
If so, would Bill Burkett have to tell investigators where he obtained the documents?
Re:Who did this damage more? (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately, now that the monkey is off CBS' back, we may never find out who forged them...unless criminal charges are pressed on Burkett, he has no reason to talk. He's also a bit of a looney, this isn't the first time he's attacked Bush.
--trb
How Soon Does The News Have to Be Out? (Score:4, Insightful)
CNN, and other networks, on Election Night in 2000 were reporting live, real time events. It is very understandable why all the networks had trouble calling Florida's vote count.
Dan Rather, on the other hand, had time to check, and didn't do his job. In one case, a source had been read the documents over the phone, but never told they were typewritten. There were also problems with the dates -- the memos involved people who were no longer in the Texas ANG. While there is a rush to get that kind of info out, Rather (who, I admit, I have never trusted or liked as a newscaster) seemed to live up to the image I developed of him in Journalism class when I read his autobiography (The Camera Never Blinks) -- he was more concerned with being the first, the most noticable, and the one with the biggest ego, instead of making sure he was reporting news.
I don't think there's reason to penalize CNN and other networks for the gaffs in 2000, but Rather -- I hope this helps people finally see he operates on the same level Geraldo operated on when he did stunts like opening Al Capone's vault.
I also think Rather owes a public apology to BOTH Bush and Kerry, since the memos slandered Bush, but also would have looked to many like Kerry was trying to slander Bush.
BTW, even though I can forgive CNN for the mistakes in 2000, I still can't bring myself to call any station a news channel when they spend 8 hours a day for a year on the O.J. Simpson trial.
Lawsuit (Score:3, Insightful)
If GW was a citizen rather than The President, he'd have a slam-dunk slander case. CBS did not follow due diligence in determining the authenticity of the memos. It really looks like CBS was shopping for the verification they wanted, in order to be able to air the memos even though they knew they were fakes. They even went so far as to call a preliminary opinion of the documents (collectively, not just the 4 memos) their authentication.
If it can be proven that CBS intentionally ran the story with fake documents, its just a short step further to the jackpot slander verdict
Watch how they CYA with their 'follow-up' 'report' on how the documents were authenticated
Re:Vote Tabulation (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think people understood before the impact that preceding states have on states in later time zones. Hopefully recent electoral experiences will prompt states to delay election information.
In fact, I'm not terribly happy with how news organizations treat election-day broadcasts. They seem to treat it the same as they would treat the final game in a Stanley Cup Series. As opposed to celebrating the freedom of voting, and perhaps a look back on 4 years.
For example, I would have thought that in the years I've spent watching election coverage, I would have heard about what Badnarik said about pre-1890s ballots not being printed by the government.
Re:Hindsight is 20/20 (Score:5, Insightful)
In any case, the real issue isn't the mistake, it's the cover-up. If they had retracted the story immediately, it would have been much more forgivable but there is simply no excuse for the way they stonewalled until it was clear that the problem wasn't going away. And the "apology" here doesn't address that issue at all.
Re:My two questions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My two questions (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just going to feed the Right Wing's crap about the liberal press.
2) Here I agree. CBS took way to long to admit a mistake. Furthermore, some of the items brought up to prove these documents were fakes were so obvious I have to seriously question how well the researched them in the first place. Again, they probably wanted to get the story out so bad they fell hook, line, and sinker.
Re:Lawsuit (Score:3, Insightful)
Um. No.
That's a retraction. Of the whole story.
If GW was a citizen rather than The President, he'd have a slam-dunk slander case.
No, he wouldn't. In order to collect damages for defamation, you generally have to prove that the publishing agency acted with the clear knowledge that the information wasn't true. Proving that the absence of probative evidence --a memo from Rather saying that the story is crap but that he's going to run it anyway because he hates that bastard Bush--is essentially impossible.
Allow Me to Rant About This (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course not. But, as is the custom with our current administration, the most effective way to suppress the message is to conduct a smear campaign against the messenger.
Such is the cult of personality surrounding George W. Bush: Because Bush cannot be flawed in any way, those that suspect he is must be destroyed. (I'm thinking of Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, Dan Rather, and any other number of smaller government employees, economists, journalists, etc.)
But you can't entirely blame Bush's people. Why not do what works, if you can get away with it?
This whole forged documents story is endemic of a systemic failure in our print and television media-- a failure that allows any number of major scandals to go unreported, that allows lies to pass under the guise of "viewpoints," that focuses on real or imagined personality traits rather than issues.
I will register my disgust in the proper way: through my vote.
Re:It is obvious if you put on your tinfoil hat (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It is obvious if you put on your tinfoil hat (Score:2, Insightful)
Okay, that's about the stupidest comment ever.
The story is, "These memos show that Bush blah blah something bad blah blah."
The memos are forgeries.
The story, therefore, is automatically false.
Use your brain for a minute, huh?
Admission of guilt is actually a good thing (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact that a station actually admits that they made a mistake is to its credit.
I'm sure that there are news stations that misreport without ever clearing up any mistakes they may have made.
Anyway, firstly, if you wanted to censure news stations for obvious bias, there would probably not be any US-based channels on the air. I personally prefer news from Reuters and the BBC, but I'm sure someone will believe them to be pinko-commie-sympathizing liberals (or neo-Nazi facists, depending on your view of the news being reported).
Secondly, I think that allowing people to moderate news will result in continuous 24 hour coverage of sports and models, since that's probably what most people would like to see instead of depressing world news and politics.
Re:There's no libel here (Score:1, Insightful)
We need to keep in mind:
The document was, in fact a forgery.
The non-experts who looked at it suspected it was a forgery.
There's ample evidence that the people it was provided to knew it was a forgery.
The experts who were paid to know these things confirmed it was a forgery.
Having a formerly well-respected individual get onto television and state emphatically to the entire world that they were genuine does not alter the fact that the document was a forgery.
and yet, we're still trudging around Iraq, looking for the Nukes that don't exist.
It's almost like nobody really cares that someone forged, misrepresented or just misunderstood the nature of this document?
Oh, I'm sorry, were we talking about something trivial here?
Re:Who did this damage more? (Score:4, Insightful)
We now find out that CBS, who previously had the utmost confidence in their source, did not even trouble to learn who actually provided them. They allowed Bill Burkett, who is not a reporter, to withhold the identity of his purported source for the documents. In other words, CBS published very damning documents without even knowing who had obtained the originals. A simple Google search on Bill Burkett would have revealed numerous detailed reports of his attacks on Governor and President Bush, and the subsequent undermining of his claims when subjected to scrutiny such as done by the Boston Globe.
CBS knew or easily should have known that Burkett had a long-standing axe to grind with President Bush. They knew he was not the original source of the documents. They knew that he was not the original source for the documents, and had only his word, with no confirming details, that the documents came from a legitimate source. They knew that THEIR OWN DOCUMENT EXAMINERS warned them of problems with the documents, and the one expert they finally relied on vouched only for the signature, not the rest of the document, and specifically stated that it is impossible to fully authenticate a photocopy. To report on documents obtained by Burkett, trusting only his clearly biased word that the documents are authentic, showed, in my opinion, reckless disregard for the truth.
Rather's and CBS's recklessness is further shown in their initial response to the immediate and substantive criticism of the documents. Instead of admitting that they really didn't know where the documents came from, or that the source was a known and persistent critic of the President, they accused their own critics of being partisan. They slapped up a typwritten document with a small "TH" on it as proof positive that typewriters back then could do superscripted "TH", despite very clear differences between that typewritten example and the forged documents.
Did Dan Rather actually know that these documents were forged when he reported them? I doubt it. Did he show reckless disregard for that truth? I believe so, yes.
To prevail in a libel lawsuit, President Bush would also have to show actual malice on the part of Dan Rather and CBS. Personally, I believe that the whole course of conduct showing Rather's and CBS's reckless disregard for the truth is itself evidence of malice. There is no other conceivable motive for their actions. I would be willing to bet quite a bit of money that they have rejected similar stories which portrayed Democrats negatively.
Truly, if one of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had brought Dan Rather or his producer a set of documents looking exactly like this but supposedly from the "personal files" of one of Kerry's Vietnam commanders, claiming that Kerry did not deserve one of his medals, does anybody truly believe CBS would have run that story without a great deal more fact checking and certainty than they required here?
Re:Allow Me to Rant About This (Score:5, Insightful)
How is that the military's word is good enough for one candidate and not the other. I would love to see one campaign where a double standard isn't so blatantly applied by either side. As it is, I need to keep duct tape wrapped around my head to keep it from exploding.
Here's an idea: Let's give Kerry credit for serving bravely and honorably and let's give Bush credit for serving, even if it wasn't in combat.
Here's the real question: Who's going to keep the Islamofascist nutjobs from blowing me up?!
I still can't see what tortured logic you are applying to blame this issue on the Republicans. Dan Rather destroyed himself (and he's been doing it for years). I didn't give him any credibility before all this happened. You ever hear the nickname "Red" Dan Rather? It's been around for years, even decades.
Courage, indeed. CBS has gotten to the point where they can't even pretend to be objective. I'd trust the National Enquirer before those clowns.
Re:There's no libel here (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh boy. I'm no fan of Bush (I voted for him in 2000, and I'm not voting for him this time around), but just because you don't like the guy doesn't mean you can conveniently ignore the fact that these documents were forged. Even if they are talking about something that really did happen in the early seventies, they are forgeries, and therefore nothing more than mean spirited fiction. They are not evidence, and no amount of good intentions on anyone's part can change that, no more than some of the more fanciful stories about Clinton that have been proven false are somehow correct because they were "morally justified".
You can't apply one standard to the group you agree with, and then apply another standard to those you don't. That's just hypocrisy.
Re:There's no libel here (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you serious? Are you really suggesting that it's OK to forge documents to prove a point that you think is true? Would you also advocate planting falsified evidence on somebody you're certain is guilty of another crime?
Heavens to Betsy, there is something seriously defective in the ethical centre of your brain.
Re:Allow Me to Rant About This (Score:2, Insightful)
My god. This comment is enough to bring me out of a nearly year-long hiatus from posting to /..
Of course there is other evidence. Try this [archive.org]. In fact, there is no evidence to support that Bush was not AWOL. In this case, since the military should have been keeping meticulous records, it is a reasonable conclusion that Bush was AWOL in lieu of any credible evidence to suggest that he did in fact show up for his duty at wartime.
By your idea of "logic," because there is no document saying there is not an invisible pink unicorn flying above your head, there must be. Here, there should be documentation of his service, but there isn't. Were this a case where we shouldn't expect records to exist, you'd be right. However, at fault is your assumption that a (fictious) lack of evidence to incriminate Bush in fact clears him. It does not. Furthermore, as I specified above, there is evidence to incriminate Bush. Take this quote from the article:
I rest my case. Here, we have evidence to specifically incriminate him, and none to save him. Until further evidence is produced on this issue, there is no logical conclusion but that he failed in his duty, then lied about it.
Re:Admission of guilt is actually a good thing (Score:3, Insightful)
So no, I think it is unlikely such a system would work.
Re:Allow Me to Rant About This (Score:5, Insightful)
A Boston Globe story? You've got a lot of balls posting that link in here.
In fact, there is no evidence to support that Bush was not AWOL.
Except, you know, for the fact that he was honorably discharged, not an honor conferred upon them what don't show up. And the public record of Bush's attendance. And the expert opinion of Lt. Col. Lloyd given upon examining the records. And the dental check-up that you guys love to forget about.
Except for all that evidence, there's no evidence at all.
Hell, even CBS News admits that ample evidence of the president's honorable service exists.
Here, we have evidence to specifically incriminate him, and none to save him.
Oooh, one quote taken out of context and misrepresented. (He was talking about an event that happened in the winter of 1968, dumbass.)
You baffle me. "There's no evidence at all! Except for all that evidence, which doesn't count because the Boston Globe which never, ever lies told me so!"
Loser.
CBS and Rather are totally at fault here. (Score:3, Insightful)
Rather needs to be forcibly retired and M Mapes (?) needs to be reassigned. Both destroyed the credibility of 60 Minutes (as if had any - they are distortion central) and CBS.
Not only did Rather slader Bush he also damaged Kerry because it will be played out by many as being a DNC based conspiracy.
Just a few days before this story broke Rather was proclaiming what happened 30 years ago didn't matter
(Quote) "I would like us to concentrate more on issues and less on campaign process. But there is always a tendency to go with what's sensational. Also, we're human, and humans keep making the same mistakes. In the end, what difference does it make what one candidate or the other did or didn't do during the Vietnam War? In some ways, that war is as distant as the Napoleonic campaigns. What's far more import is this: Do they have an exit strategy for Iraq? If so, what is it? How will they address the national deficit? And what are the chances their plans will work?"
Dan Rather was a great newsman who traded his integrity in an attempt to play kingmaker. He has probably damaged CBS for some time to come all because his selfish political ideas were more important than the truth.
Re:It is obvious if you put on your tinfoil hat (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes. And if you refuse to let the nice officer search your car, you must be smuggling drugs. Oh, and if you plead the 5th on the witness stand, you must be guilty of the crime your accused of. And while you're at it, let's ask George W. a simple yes or no question: "Have you stopped beating your wife?" We'll know the answer is "no" if he doesn't want to answer that one.
Re:Lawsuit (Score:3, Insightful)
It doesn't bother me so much that CBS was duped, but that they were so EAGER to be duped. The appearance of the documents raises red flags. The "unimpeachable" source is anything but (a very partisan Democrat with a personal animus towards Bush and towards the Texas National Guard, who has had to retract some previous accusations). The partisan nature of the other key source Ben Barnes who is a Vice Chair of, and a top fundraiser for, the Kerry campaign. I am not a big believer in "bias" but I can't imagine that Rather would have run with a similarly partisanly sourced hit piece against Kerry.
Bad intel - WMD and WNG (W Natl Guard) (Score:5, Insightful)
We knew Saddam had developed and used WMDs in the past, we knew that Saddam had disobeyed UN resolutions in the past, we knew that Saddam had cheated on international weapons inspections in the past. Why wouldn't he have WMDs? When evidence was presented, everyone was ready to accept it. Even the Joe Wilson story (Niger yellowcake) didn't keep people from accepting the worst case scenario.
Similar thing with the Bush National Guard records. We know that Bush jumped to the head of the applicant list through the good ol' boy network. We know that he did not perform the duties he signed contracts for.
There was nothing in the content of the forged memos that raised suspicion -- instead it was abbreviations and typography that gave it away. Interestingly, the same was true of the Niger yellowcake documents -- one of the big giveaways was that the names of govt officials were not contemporary with the dates on the documents.
Even old pros like Rather need to learn: just because evidence seems to fit does not make it true.
Re:Who did this damage more? (Score:3, Insightful)
What are folk on here?
One of the curious facts about the activities of the 111th keyboarders discussion of antique typewriters is that almost none of the points raised by 'experts' were valid. As I said at the time the series of claims about the capabilities of 1970s era typewriters fell apart, there was a typewriter that could have produced the memo and denying that fact only obscured the genuine question of whether it was Killian's office typewriter. Its like arguing that Hitler and Stalin never met because they were not contemporaries. The conclusion is correct but the argument is based on a claim that is clearly false, same thing with the claims that the documents were not produced on a typwriter, take a look at the uneven baseline and then explain how to produce the same effect using a laser printer.
Regardless of how the document was produced the issue of provenance was always going to be there. There is no real reason to doubt that the documents were given to CBS by Burkett, a critic of Bush who does not appear to be sponsored by either the Democratic party and certainly not by Karl Rove.
I guess that we could hypothesize that Rove planted the documents on Burkett, but this seems highly unlikely. The simplest explanation is that Burkett forged the documents himself.
I don't see why this should affect the Democrats. It is very clear that the 'Smearboat Liars for Bush' are peddling outright lies, their story has changed repeatedly, is denied by contemporary documents, including the citations for decorations awarded to the smearboat liars. It is very obvious that the Smearboat Liars are a Rove creation but this does not seem to have damaged Bush.
As for libel, I can't see how Bush would want to empower CBS with discovery powers. Killian's secretary has stated that the documents produced were forgeries but that she remembers typing similar documents. The documents were only a small part of the evidence against Bush. The fact remains that Bush lied about the reason for not taking his medical.
It is a pity that the Republican party did not exercise the same degree of skepticism with respect to the documents provided by Ahmed Chalabai that were used to justify the entry to the Iraq quagmire. Chalabai was a far more suspicious source than Burkett, he is after all a convicted embezzler and the CIA had concluded he was an Iranian agent back in the 1990s.
Bush's lies about his guard service are irrelevant compared to his lies about the cause for war in Iraq.
Re:Who did this damage more? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, but that doesn't mean that someone who reportedly didn't type memos would know how to do this or was even inclined to do so. We could ask Mr. Killian, but he's dead. Very convenient.
Again, the claim made was false, the similarities disappear when you do a comparison at a decent resolution.
I don't follow. I tried this, and you can try it yourself. Find a website that has the MS Word file of the memo, then print it and the CBS memo PDF out and overlay them (turning the Word memo every so slightly to compensate for the CBS memo being scanned at a slight angle) and you will clearly see that the spacing is remarkably similar.
you still don't come up with the uneven baseline that is very clear on the CBS copy.
The memo was scanned in at a slight angle...
I wonder why so many Bush appologists preferred to make demonstratively untrue statements such as 'typewriters cannot do proportional fonts' rather than perform the simple test that would be decisive.
I think you heard a lot of people who were simplifying the issue, that's all. And haven't people been TRYING to perform the "simple" decisive test? Didn't CBS admit that they can't vouch for the authenticity of the memos (in other words, they're sugarcoating "these memos are forged")? Their source even refuses to identify where the got the memos from -- it's just a little bit suspicious, don't you think?
Whoever took the trouble to create the documents definitely used a typewriter to do so.
Well, which typewriter is it? No one has provided a definitive answer, only stating the obvious fact that "this typewriter can do superscripts IF you go to the trouble of replacing a type ball and this other typewriter can do proportional spacing" or even pointing out that very expensive typesetters that only experienced people could operate COULD actually produce this document (but not necessarily with the exact same spacing and fonts that a brand new copy of MS Word possesses). Honestly, it should be very easy for those among us who are not convinced of MS Word forgery to identify THE EXACT typewriters that could have been used (and more importantly, likely to have been used) and compare National Guard purchase records. Even with THAT simple, decisive test, CBS still has to acknowledge that they don't believe the memos are authentic anymore.
Re:Who did this damage more? (Score:3, Insightful)
Misdirection and spin. The RNC has no part in the forgery whatsoever. The DNC, in demanding that the RNC explain its involvement, has allowed its most lamebrained followers to reject that answer out of hand and keep the conspiracy theory alive.
Lame, lame, lame. Clever politicking, but incredibly lame.
the chances of either national party being involved are negligible.
Um. The DNC is already involved. Joe Lockhart, remember?
The polls are clearly swinging towards Kerry
LOL! Have you seen the latest numbers? Even in the biased polls --the ones that selectively sample in order to approximate the voter turnout in the 2000 election, which was a very low turnout for Republicans--show Kerry tied or behind by a margin that's within the MOE. The unbiased polls show Bush up by as much as 14 or 15 points nationwide. Electoral college math has Bush breaking 300 electoral college votes if the election were held today. Bush's job approval is up over 50%, and the Rasmussen automated tracking poll, not known for being accurate in the numbers but known for being an indicator of trends, has Bush's margin increasing.
Al Qaeda to attack before the inauguration unless people vote for Bush etc.
Oh, sure. It's all a big conspiracy. Whatever, dipshit.