...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
Now that CBS News and Dan Rather have accepted the obvious, i think its an excellent time to hit them with another round of e-mails calling for Rather's resignation. Throw Mapes in there too, for good measure.
In case you haven't seen it, here's the statement:
STATEMENT FROM DAN RATHER:Contact CBS News by clicking here.Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question—and their source—vigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.
Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point where—if I knew then what I know now—I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.
But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.
Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully.
More: Why does it take "extensive additional interviews" (presumably referring to CBS's upcoming Burkett interview) for Rather and company to discern what anyone else can see, simply by looking at the documents for five minutes.
That's the problem with "journalists." They don't have the brainpower to understand technical issues (which the bloggers grasped immediately), so they rely on hearsay almost exclusively. They would make horrible lawyers.
He that liveth by hearsay, must perish by hearsay.
Update: A rather amusing poem by Smallholder at Nakedvillainy.com.
Dan Rather certainly got snookered. Just goes to show that relying on your employees to figure things out for you can be disastrous if you are not paying attention. Does anybody have any evidence that he participated in this fraud, or do you think it was so obvious a fraud that he must have known?
I've been writing letters to the White House asking Bush to resign, too. He either got really snookered by the intelligence community, otherwise know as his employees, or he was in on the fraud all along. Nothing he presented as evidence turned out to be true either!
I guess I better start writing to CBS too, but I fear the same outcome as my letters to the WH.
What to do!!
Posted by: mike on Sep. 20, 2004Please do write to CBS, Mike.
Your analogy is interesting, but unsound. You make the mistake of so many others, by focusing entirely on WMD as the justification for the war in Iraq. It's understandable that you would make that mistake, since the administration has done such a piss poor job of explaining why the Iraq War was necessary. But it's clear to me, and to anyone who had done the necessary analysis, that the War was and is justified as part of the "War on Terror." i've posted on this extensively, so i won't repeat my arguments in this comment. But i would add that Krauthammer's AEI speech is a good place to start your research, if you're really open-minded on the issue, which i doubt.
Posted by: annika! on Sep. 20, 2004If you read between the lines, you'll notice subliminal messages in the statement........
"It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting WITHOUT FEAR or FAVORITISM."
Translation: ......in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of courageously making reports that depict conservatives unfavorably.
Now, where's my tin foil hat?
Posted by: reagan80 on Sep. 20, 2004I tried to converse with folks on the Kerry blog and they kicked me off. They don't want to hear that the docs were fake.
Yah Paul. It reminds me of the days before Clinton admitted to the Lewinsky thing, when everybody was saying they believed him. Then they all had egg on their faces after Clinton admitted it.
Posted by: annika! on Sep. 20, 2004Thank God for these media outlets (like this one), kicking butt and dispelling rumors.
No longer can the mainstream media have a field day with their own liberal agenda.
Oh well, have a good day.
- Paul
It's too bad CSI, I mean CBS, is keeping him on the air, this was a golden opportunity for them to shake things up. I'll send another email, I hope it does the job.
Posted by: Scof on Sep. 20, 2004I want DubYuh to do an interview with him, and when Dan gets snotty as he surely will, look him in the eye and say, "Dan, what did you know, and when did you know it?"
Posted by: Casca on Sep. 20, 2004Let's see ... Rather used information he thought was accurate and reported on it. He was mistaken, the information was wrong. The potential damage-- possibily a slight blemish on President Bush. Now consider this. Bush used information he thought was accurate and acted on it. He was mistaken, the information was wrong. The potential damage-- tens of thousands of people are dead. So based on this logic shouldn't they both resign?
Posted by: thebigo on Oct. 10, 2004