Posted on 01/01/2005 8:59:39 AM PST by Libloather
Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick
Thu Dec 30, 7:00 PM ET
Ibd
It 's been nearly 3 1/2 months since former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief executive Louis D. Boccardi were named to an independent panel to investigate the "60 Minutes" story that used forged documents to allege Bush shirked his duties when in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1960s and 1970s.
The panel was named Sept. 22, 14 days after the story aired and two days after Rather finally stopped denying that the documents were bogus and admitted the story was a mistake. The probe was supposed to get at how the story came to be.
In most newsrooms, that would take about 14 minutes, not 14 weeks, and those involved would by now have found new employment in the food-service or hospitality industry.
This screw-up, however, must be really complicated. Indeed, Mary Mapes, the story's producer, reportedly delivered a "60-plus-page defense" of the piece to investigators -- as if that's a lot to pore over.
Or is it that CBS thinks last month's announcement that Rather would be stepping down as anchor of CBS Evening News has effectively taken Memogate off the public radar screen?
If so, it should think again. Yes, we realize that holding people responsible for their actions -- think Sandy Berger or George Tenet -- was passe in '04. But CBS' transgressions date back much further than one story or one year.
As we've often said, and as one of its own, Bernard Goldberg, has damningly laid out in two books, CBS' problem is deep-seated political bias. Any investigation that doesn't address that problem will be dismissed -- at least in this newsroom -- as no investigation at all.
Rather Dan - the biggest dope in 2004, continuing into 2005! WAY TO GO DAN!
The last statement I heard him utter was that the authenticity of the documents could not be proven. I don't recall him ever admitting the documents were fakes.
dan rather's been doing dan rather for decades and getting by with it.
no, the network did not fire him. why?
because that would make it look like he was responsibile and the network at fault.
in order to avoid that perception, he'll retire later this year.
perception is reality.
It hit me that this tactic was first used by Barbra Streisand. When she tried to plagerise Shakespeare in a 2000 fund raising speech it was revealed that the quote she used was fake- it came from an internet parody.
When she was confronted with the truth she said, "The message is true anyway and if who ever wrote it isn't writing a play, they should be."
Liberals are nature's prank on the rest of us.
That's exactly right. He has never admitted anything! cBS thinks we're going to forget about it.
They are wrong.
Amazing that in a building full of newpersons, not one tiny detail of this investigative report has yet to be leaked?
BTTT
it's called "solidarity".
whether on the university campus, in hollywood, or inside abcbscnnnbc, everyone knows who everyone is.
no one outside this clique are hired. when someone sees the light, they're booted out.
The hell with CBS's investigation I want an arrest by the DOJ
Independant panel is a joke. Want to get the truth out in less than 60 minutes? All Powell has to do is say on the Friday before the NFL playoffs that all of CBS programing is completely off the air until Viacom produces an honest and truthful report on the incident that satifys the FCC. CBS would have the report out faster than crap through a goose!
Mary mapes 60 plus page letter explaining herself in a righteous context is one hell of a lot of 'splainin. By nature of circumstance, a 60 page defense of one's actions is a confession. That's why we have a fifth amendment right in the courtroom. Some day that 60 page mess may come home to haunt her. It may migrate from the confines of an employer/employee relationship into a criminal matter and there is not a damn thing she can do to prevent it.
One of two things is happening. Thornburgh is using that Utah professor as a technical adviser. And CBS is aping government bureaucracy that they adore, with a case of the slows.
Thornburgh/Boccardi know better. And the lawyers for DanCo. learned from the Viet Cong how to sow fear
in the populace.
Not that I watch SNL, but they should start a "Week XX, and still no report on Blather's Blunder..."
NFL playoff's......
Innauguration complicated with protesters and violence.......
Recounts on everything including wether schoolkids went number one or number two.........
Complete meltdown on Iraqi elections....
Superbowl mixed with rumors of terrorism.
A vice presidential heart attack on Valentines day. The following month long expose' on Viagra and it's dangers will fill the nuwz until Rather departs and the no-need to discuss any report......
And the assasination of Punxatawney Phil by a sharpshooter on February 2nd.
Let the countdown begin.
It is a non issue for CBS, they are off the front page. Expect nothing to happen.
If CBS New had a story about Republicans faking Memos to trash Democrats, they would have a full blown investigation, complete with story in a matter of days. Here, all they have to go down the hall and interview their own employees. They could at least give us something.
They will definitely release this investigation before Dan leaves. The last thing they want to do is remind him that he ever existed after he's gone.
CBS chose it's investigators well.
Wow!! To me this is actually good news!
Here's why, this delay shows that what was discovered has been so damaging, and so troubling that they can not and will not make anything public without some minimal measure of internal correct, and scrubbing the report.
This also leads me to believe that the damaging stuff is being reported up the food chain so that even if the public never finds out, old Andrew Hayward's getting an earful and the rest of the board of directors is probably very angry...
HOWEVER, maybe we should start a campaign that notes any misleading statements in that report could constitute violations of Sarbanes Oxley... Now THAT would be fun...
Re-Designed (stage 1) ANTI-DNC Web Portal at ---> http://www.noDNC.com
If they do complete their "investigation" I will hear about it on Fox News or FR.
My viewer ship and trust of CBS News began falling in the mid to late '60s. It has been close to absolute zero before 1980.
Note to affiliates: Still twistin'....
Here in the Central Time Zone the Evening News with Dan Rather precedes the local news.
Note FROM affiliates: why are OUR ratings so low?
The local affiliates have suffered because of Dan, part of the Rather Legacy.
One of these days they might grow a brain. But they better not wait too long....
You guys just don't understand the free market system.
This "investigation" is being carried out by a law firm, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham (http://www.klng.com/)which just so happens to have one of the investigation leaders, Richard Thornburg, as a member of the firm. It is entirely funded by CBS.
These K street law firms get like $400/hour. Why should they hurry this investigation when it pays off at that rate. And what gets released is under the client, CBS's, total control, as they are the purchaser of the lawyers product.
Expect a whitewash type "mistakes were made" conclusion, with no details or specificity, like what questions were asked of what witnesses.
If they really wanted an accurate result, they should have turned all the money over to Freepers and turned them loose.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Copy the above article and send it to:
grain@cbsnews.com
along with the statement:
We will NOT FORGET, We are STILL Waiting.
35 years ago I watched more local news on TV than I do today.
The reason: today I watch Bret Hume and then forget to click the remote for local news.
The Rather legacy.
Wasn't the panels report supposed to be released on December 10th? Silly me, I thought that was 12-10-2004. Perhaps it was to be released in 12-10-2005,6,7 or what ever.
Good quote for a tagline.
I haven't forgotten. The Clintonista Sandy Berger is hoping to march in John Deutch's shoes and evade prosecution for what he did.
The basic trait of a liberal is unbridled evil whether it is done knowingly or unknowingly. They feel, they touch, they empathize, they will 'fight for you' (regardless if it's against other Americans), and they think they are right and they will enslave you if you don't agree. In fact, they ARE evil and should be treated as such. They rationalize every evil act they perpetrate with the knowledge that what they are doing is for the good of humanity when it is, in reality, against anything good. NEVER trust a liberal.
Good suggestion, LSJ, we each have to let them know how we feel about them, and how they are 'handling' this slight problem of theirs.
I also have the email address of my 'local' cBS from their reply to my last email on this subject.
Our local comes on right after Hume. It's not like I have to get up and change it, like 35 years ago. But children were the first cure to that problem, before the invention of the remote.
I don't think he admitted a "mistake."
BUMP
Thornburgh and Boccardi's mission is obviously to whitewash the whole mess for CBS (and by extension, the rest of the dying "old" news media). That they have dawdled and screwed around for so long speaks volumes about how deep the corruption at CBS must run. Apparently, Thornburgh and Boccardi are just as corrupt as CBS. This whitewash should have been wrapped up long ago.
I hope nobody has been holding their breath.
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