posted on September 21, 2004 03:43:54 PM new
CBS Faces New Charges Over Discredited Bush Report
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By Greg Frost
NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS News faced new charges of journalistic impropriety on Tuesday, a day after the network said it regretted using questionable documents in a report challenging President Bush (news - web sites)\'s military service.
[b]At issue was a report in USA Today that the source of the documents gave them to CBS only after the network agreed to arrange a conversation between the source and the presidential campaign of Bush\'s opponent, Democratic Sen. John Kerry[b] (news - web sites).
Experts in media ethics said if the report were true, CBS may have overstepped the boundary between journalism and politics. The network said it would investigate the matter.
\"It is obviously against CBS News standards and those of every other reputable news organization to be associated with any political agenda,\" CBS News said in a statement.
\"As to what actually happened here, it is one of many issues the independent review will be examining,\" the network said, referring to a probe it announced on Monday as part of a dramatic about-face over the authenticity of documents.
After two weeks of defending the documents, which served as the basis for its Sept. 8 report, CBS News publicly acknowledged that it could not prove they were authentic.
Media experts said the affair had deeply damaged the credibility of CBS News, once home to anchor Walter Cronkite -- dubbed \"the most trusted man in America.\"
LOCKHART SPOKE TO SOURCE
USA Today reported that the source of the documents, retired National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, agreed to turn them over to CBS if the network would arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.
Aly Colon, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said if that is the case, CBS News may have crossed the line.
\"Credibility is critical to journalism and anything that a journalist does that raises questions ... about the integrity of the process undermines or potentially undermines the credibility of the report or the integrity of journalist bringing the report,\" Colon said.
In an interview with CNN, Kerry campaign aide Joe Lockhart confirmed that CBS had given him Burkett\'s number and he had had a conversation with Burkett days before the story aired.
Lockhart said they did not discuss the documents and Burkett used the conversation to offer his advice about how Kerry should run his campaign.
\"I didn\'t know who the guy was. I talked to him on the phone for three to four minutes. That\'s the beginning and the end of the story,\" he said, adding that the Kerry campaign had \"nothing to do\" with the documents.
Burkett did not reply to a telephone call seeking comment.
Dan Rather, the anchor and top CBS newsman, who faces heavy criticism over the network\'s decision to air the story, was also not available for comment, his office said.
Bush has never fully accounted for his service during the Vietnam War, when he was given a coveted place in the National Guard while many of his peers were drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam.
The matter has dogged him during earlier political races but became more prominent this year as Kerry emphasized his own service as a decorated Navy officer during the war.
The four memos aired by CBS, purportedly written and signed by the late Air National Guard Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, said he was under pressure from his superiors to \"sugar coat\" Bush\'s service record after Bush, then a Guard pilot, was grounded for failure to perform up to standards or to take a physical.
posted on September 21, 2004 05:37:54 PM new
The problem is the information on the documents is correct. If they are going to investigate the forged documents, they must investigate Bush's service record as well. The secretary said the info is correct, but she did not type the documents.
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