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REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL DICK THORNBURGH AND LOUIS D. BOCCARDI ON THE SEPTEMBER 8, 2004 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY SEGMENT “FOR THE RECORD” CONCERNING PRESIDENT BUSH’S TEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE JANUARY 5, 2005 KIRKPATRICK & LOCKHART NICHOLSON GRAHAM LLP Michael J. Missal, Esq. Lawrence Coe Lanpher, Esq. 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 778-9000 Counsel to the Independent Review Panel i TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................4 A. 60 Minutes Wednesday Background..............................................................................6 B. The Pursuit of a Story on President Bush’s TexANG Service ......................................7 C. Obtaining Documents ....................................................................................................8 D. The Production of...

By Jim Emerson Editor, RogerEbert.com October 14, 2004Who's the, uh, biggest villain in "Team America"? Kim Jong Il or Hollywood celebrities?"You should learn to keep your opinions OUT of your reviews!" Every critic I know has received at least one letter like that from an indignant reader. Of course, it's an absurd proposition; critics are paid to express their opinions, and the good ones (who exercise what is known across all disciplines as "critical thinking") are also able to cite examples and employ sound reasoning to build an argument, showing you how and why they reached their verdict. Well, since...

Dan Rather, the CBS anchor who is well past his sell-by date, was verging on losing it in the early morning hours of November 3. Ed Bradley had carried out a mathematical calculation that showed that George W. Bush needed only to obtain 15 per cent of Ohio’s absentee and provisional ballots to win the state and the presidency. A visibly upset Rather then came out with one of his famous Danisms--just because a chicken has wings, doesn’t mean it can fly. In a poignant comment, Bradley defended himself by saying that he wasn’t making the math up--the figures came...

November 03, 2004 Ed Bradley Calls Election for Bush on CBS, Rather Objects In a rather testy on-air exchange, circa 12:30am PST, between Dan Rather, CBS anchor, and Ed Bradley, long-time corresponent for CBS's 60 Minutes and an election night commentator, Bradley rather roundly criticized both Kerry and his own network for not accepting the obvious mathematics and calling the election for Bush. Bradley pointed out that Bush leads Kerry by 145,000 votes in Ohio, and even if 250,000 provisional ballots remain (which he considered a high estimate), and that even if all the provisional ballots are valid, Kerry would...

Rather: "if you had to bet the double-wide, you'll bet that he (Bush) wins"

<p>News of missing explosives in Iraq -- first reported in April 2003 -- was being resurrected for a 60 MINUTES election eve broadcast designed to knock the Bush administration into a crises mode...</p>

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON OCT 25 2004 22:45:05 ET XXXXX NBCNEWS: CACHE OF EXPLOSIVES VANISHED FROM SITE IN IRAQ BEFORE TROOPS ARRIVED... The NYTIMES urgently reported on Monday in an apprent October Surprise: The Iraqi interim government and the U.N. nuclear agency have warned the United States that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives are now missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations. [The source behind the NYT story first went to CBSNEWS' 60 MINUTES last Wednesday, but the beleaguered network wasn't able to get the piece on the air as fast as the newspaper...

Disgraced CBS newsman Dan Rather accused the White House on Saturday of trying to "smear" him after he used forged documents in a bid to discredit President Bush's National Guard record. Speaking at a media forum in New York City, Rather insisted, "I don't have a political agenda." "I'm an independent journalist," he claimed, in quotes picked up by the Washington Post. Rather pledged that he wouldn't give in to his critics, whom he said were themselves guilty of "bias."The embattled newsman denied reports that he would step down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" anytime soon, vowing to...

<p>For a couple of days now we've been talking about whether the CBS memos could have been produced using the technology available in 1972 and 1973. We've talked about two typewriters mainly, both widely used at that time: the IBM Executive series and the IBM Selectric series.</p>

Dan Rather came under criticism after it was revealed by the Washington Post that he had given a keynote speech at a fund-raiser for Texas Democrats: GERALDO RIVERA: Let me just read you this news account, April 5th, USA Today: "Conservatives and pundits had a field day at Dan Rather's expense Wednesday after the CBS anchor apologized for being the star attraction at a recent Democratic fundraiser in Texas that raised 20 grand." Was that one of the worst mistakes you've made at least recently? DAN RATHER: Well, it certainly was one of the dumbest mistakes I ever made. But...

After running 28 stories last month on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American forces, Dan Rather and his colleagues relegated the announcement of the new Iraqi government to third place on Tuesday's CBS Evening News. In almost parodic fashion, Rather decided that tapes being used in the little-noticed trial of employees of defunct energy company Enron should be the top story of the night, more newsworthy than a huge development on the number one issue in the presidential campaign. Rather and correspondent Vince Gonzalez hyped the tapes, which the anchor proclaimed as "a CBS News exclusive." "You're about to...

President Bush is facing increasing dissent among leading conservative politicians and pundits in the face of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq. The war has become the long slog that some Republicans feared. Since Sunday, 32 Americans have been killed in fighting across Iraq. American body bags are on the front page of major U.S. newspapers. The Washington Post and The New York Times brandished images of charred U.S. civilian remains last week. The networks are leading their nightly news broadcasts with stories of dead Americans. "If we have two or three more weeks of this you are going to start...

CBS on Wednesday night provided a forum for the Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, to complain about access to documents as reporter Randall Pinkston hyped his story: "For the first time, commission chairman Tom Kean is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented." Pinkston added: "Appointed by President Bush, Kean is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame." Specifically, complaining about trouble getting to see "top-secret daily briefs, documents that may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of...

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of a federal commission looking into the Sept. 11 attacks said Thursday that mistakes over many years left the United States vulnerable to such an attack, but he resisted pinning blame on either of the last two presidential teams. "We have no evidence that anybody high in the Clinton administration or the Bush administration did anything wrong," chairman Thomas Kean said in an interview with ABC's "Nightline" taped for airing Thursday night. Kean said the 10-member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has not decided whether to ask former President Clinton or President...

2003-12-14 12:19:16 ET Football Cuts Into Rather's Coverage. Rather had another bizarre moment after a break in CBS's coverage of the speech of President Bush on the capture of Saddam Hussein. In the middle of speaking, the president's words were cut off. He was interrupted by a live shot of the St. Louis Rams football field, which ran for six seconds. The game had yet to start, and the stadium was only partially filled. Background noise could be heard, and through it all, the bottom of the screen said: "CBS News Special Report: Saddam Hussein Captured." When it became clear...