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Hopefully this trend will continue

by Prometheus 6
January 10, 2005 - 11:03am.
on Media

First CNN cancels Crossfire. Now this.

This may be the beginning of the end for smashmouth journalism...at least in blue states...

Anyway...

CBS Ousts 4 For Bush Guard Story

NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2005, 2004

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 "rigid and blind" defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report.

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 Mary Murphy. 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.

"We deeply regret the disservice this flawed 60 Minutes Wednesday report did to the American public, which has a right to count on CBS News for fairness and accuracy," said CBS President Les Moonves.

The panel said a "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.

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 10, 2005 - 5:08pm.

OK, so some heads rolled and CBS was found to have been lacking in fairness in accuracy in rushing to report this story. But does it bother anyone else that, while some of the memos the story was based on were found to be forged, there is the further problem that George Bush NEVER disagreed with anything in the 60 Minutes story. He NEVER explained why it appears he was AWOL from the National Guard (he just kept repeating he fulfilled his commitment). The people interviewed for the story were NEVER discredited. In other words, the memos may have been fraudulent, but they were TRUE. Fact is, Bush escaped a serious ass-whipping over this by deflecting attention to the faked memo. How desperately clever. That Karl Rove is one slick motherfucker.

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 10, 2005 - 5:20pm.

It used to bother me. Honestly, I feel the solution to that is to have REAL news coverage and analysis. And I actually think cancelling Crossfire was a more important sign.

Now if we could get CNN to toss Kurtz I'd say we're serious about this.