How do you spell cover-up? I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T C-O-M-M-I-S-S-I-O-N:
With pressure mounting on the network, CBS announced yesterday that former US attorney general Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press president Louis D. Boccardi will investigate the now-infamous “60 Minutes” broadcast that used disputed documents to raise questions about President Bush’s National Guard service…
CBS did not divulge many details about Thornburgh’s and Boccardi’s assignment but said they would be given the resources to complete their task and that their findings would be made public. A network source said the two men were selected because of their reputations for integrity and independence. Thornburgh — who served as attorney general under two Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — brings investigative credentials to the job. Boccardi was a member of the team commissioned by The New York Times last year to examine that paper’s culture after reporter Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated and plagiarized in numerous stories.
We don’t need a panel to tell us what happened- we know. Several liberal members of a news organization “KNEW” all the facts in a case, and “KNEW” the truth (paging Irving Janis), but they just couldn’t prove it.
So they went to an old political hack and Kerry fundraiser to come forward with recycled charges. In order to do that, he insisted that there be additional new information before he would come forward again. They then went to a dubious source, who under the condition of anonymity and without offering a chain of custody, would provide them with documents stating exactly what they wanted to see. But he had a price too, so the news ‘Producer’ (boy is that term eerily accurate- they didn’t produyce this story, they made it up out of nothing.) got him in contact with the Kerry campaign. Then they got their documents, then they got their tired old hack.
And they got caught red-handed. Rather than come clean, they spent a week and a half insulting the nation’s intelligence, and now, even after having to admit the basis of their story is forged, continues to toe the line that ‘essentially the story is true but we just can’t prove it.’
Which puts them precisely where they started.
At any rate, no commission is needed. I just told you what happened. What needs to happen now is heads need to roll- starting with Dan Rather.
Gregory Litchfield
They’re stalling for time. I read yesterday on LGF that Mapes is not only still employed, she’s still investigating the Bush AWOL story. At first I had assumed that this meant that CBS hadn’t learned a damn thing, but later stories included quotes from CBS officials who were uncertain of what she’s doing.
I get the feeling that Mapes knows she’s about to have her life destroyed, and she’s not about to go down alone. Whatever dirt she has on CBS, including illegal collusion between the network and/or the Kerry Campaign and the DNC, are going to become public knowledge unless she is somehow placated. Hence, CBS creates an “independent” review, which will satisfy most of the public long enough for someone to find some way out of this mess.
Note that my theory, while nothing more than utter conjecture, has every bit as much evidence going for it as the Memogate story.
CBS will never “fire” Rather. While many of us feel that it might help restore CBS’s tarnished image, the suits know that we aren’t going to be watching again, anyway. They need Rather, at least for a while longer, to help keep CBS News’ identity alive. With my awesome powers of prognostication I predict that we’ll be seeing more and more of some kind of chosen successor on CBS News in the future, and their loyal audience is weaned off Rather. Eventually, he’ll be given a gold watch and pushed out the door.
Even with this scandal, he’ll still probably have enough of a reputation intact to do the occasional appearance as an elder stateman of the 4th estate. Cronkite has to die sometime.
Speaking of Cronkite, does anyone else get the feeling that had widespread ownership of personal computers, the World Wide Web and bloggers all existed at the time he was reporting, he’d be in the same boat as Rather? The more I read about the man, the more I sense that he and Rather are frighteningly close in terms of reporting. George Bush was AWOL because Rather knows it’s the truth, facts be dammned! The Tet Offensive was a massive failure for the U.S…because Cronkite said it was. Despite the fact that we killed 85% or more of the Viet Cong and rendered them incapable of offensive action for the rest of the frikkin’ war.
There’s just no way he’d get away with it today. And that’s the way it is.
Russ
It wouldn’t hurt if CBS came out with an actual retraction of the story. Their mealy-mouthed “apology” doesn’t wash.
Dave
I wonder if the rumors / gossip that “Mapes is STILL working on the story!” are intentionally coming from the suits at CBS. It’s a lot easier to set her up as the designated fall-guy if they can paint her as an obsessed nutcase.