Posted on 09/10/2004 2:18:47 PM PDT by hispanarepublicana
FIRST-PERSON: Bernard Goldberg is vindicated Sep 10, 2004 By Kelly Boggs McMINNVILLE, Ore. (BP)--If Bernard Goldberg’s 2002 book “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News” did not convince the public at-large that television news leans decidedly left, perhaps the recent decision by CBS to report on suspect documents will.
In “Bias,” Goldberg makes the case that network news in America has become dominated by ideologues who champion a political agenda -- a decidedly liberal agenda. Even though he was a 30-year veteran at CBS, Goldberg’s views have been dismissed by many as one man’s opinion.
CBS’s recent rush to report potentially damaging documents concerning President Bush’s National Guard service might well vindicate Mr. Goldberg.
On "60 Minutes II" Sept. 8, CBS' Dan Rather reported on four documents he claimed were written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, 1st Lt. George W. Bush's superior, that indicate Bush failed to meet the standards required by the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s.
The documents were presented by Rather as coming from Killian's personal files. In them, Killian seems to complain that he was being pressured by his superior officers to "sugarcoat" Bush's substandard performance in his official records. He also describes how Bush had asked him how he could get out of "coming to drill."
Less than 24 hours after the CBS report, forensics experts were casting doubt on the authenticity of the documents. Among the problems, the font style used to produce the papers was not available on typewriters in the early 1970’s when the documents would have been produced. The documents also included a superscript -- a raised "th" included in such phrases as "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" -- that was not available on typewriters then.
One expert, reports The Chicago Sun-Times, is Philip D. Bouffard, a nationally recognized forensic authority in typewriter and electronic typefaces.
Bouffard’s conclusion after examining CBS’ documents: "It is remotely possible there is some typewriter that has the capability to do all this ... but it is more likely these documents were generated in the common Times New Roman font and printed out on a computer printer that did not exist at the time they were supposedly created."
For the record, according to The Sun-Times, Bouffard is a registered Democrat planning to vote for Kerry.
Why would Dan Rather report on documents that news organizations from sea to shining sea are now calling into question? Why would CBS air a document without thoroughly investigating its veracity? One word: bias. Rather and his cohorts at CBS will do all they can to discredit President Bush and ensure he is defeated in his bid for reelection.
Surveys done in recent years have indicated journalists in general, and electronic journalists in particular, are far more liberal in their voting patterns, and opinions, than the public at large. In “Bias,” Bernard Goldberg reported that one such survey found that 89 percent of Washington journalists voted for Bill Clinton in 1992.
Everyone has a bias. Journalists should not be faulted for having opinions or for being passionate about certain views. However, when those opinions begin to dominate how or what is presented in a story, it becomes a problem.
News organizations have a right to voice opinions, political and otherwise. However, they should be expressed via editorial and/or opinion pieces. When political opinions begin to determine what is and is not news, objective reporting is the first casualty.
Some will try to equate CBS’ airing of documents damaging to Bush with the attempt of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s attempt to discredit John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. They are not the same.
If an anti-Bush group had aired the suspect documents, a comparison could be made to the Swiftees. However, the documents were made public by a news organization as noteworthy.
It remains to be seen whether or not the documents reported on CBS are legitimate. However, with Dan Rather’s rush to report on the suspect documents, it is clear CBS has revealed its bias. Bernard Goldberg must be smiling. --30--
Before we all rush this too much: CBS could in the end be vindicated. The experts need to work on this for a bit. Right now, CBS is willing to stake its reputation on ... well something.... I guess we will find out tonight.
Something tells me we are going to be seeing a lot of Bernie on talk shows in the next few weeks.
Yeah, just like all the claims made by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth have been show to be absolutely false. /sarcasm. Seriously, CBS will tangentally debunk a couple of the individual critiques of the memos, ignore the rest, and claim their critics are full of it. And they'll only be fooling themselves and the shrinking number of liberals who are willing to be fooled.
In the face of growing evidence that SeeBS rushed this manufactured story to broadcast without ensuring that all their i's were dotted and their t's crossed (and their fonts correct), they are becoming more isolated by both the public and other media. When the family of the alleged memo author disavows the memos and numerous experts have documented causes of suspicion about the memos, See BS has a major problem.
Dan Blather is due to address the issue head-on and I fully expect him to stonewall and demagogue it. At this point, with so many sources proving the memos to be forgeries, SeeBS has backed itself into a corner that has only one outcome - SeeBS has lost all credibility as a source of unbiased news and Blather is going to extreme lengths to prove that he is biased and endorses the forged documents and the faux DNC candidate. Whatever credibility Blather and SeeBS may have once enjoyed, has been flushed down the tubes by Ben Barnes and 4 forged documents.
I hope the price they will pay is worth the cost.
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Bernie was a guest on Howie Carr's show today (WRKO-AM Boston). He said that no one at CBS, not even the head of the news division, wants to break the news to Dan. Dan lives in his own private Idaho.
bump.
Dream on!
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