Michael Newman
09-20-2004, 12:54 PM
It looks like Dan Rather (very much a liberal supporter of John Kerry) used his influence in pushing CBS News and 60 Minutes to air a false and potentially fraudulent portrayal of phony documents about President Bush!
Read between the lines below, as even Rather tries to cover up the fact in his own liberal way of apologizing:
http://espn-i.starwave.com/media/pg2/2001/1220/photo/i_rather_hi.jpg
Dan Rather Statement:
"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."
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/20/politics/main644546.shtml
And who was Rather's source?
Answer: Lt. Col. Bill Burkett
"CBS said former Texas Guard official Bill Burkett "has acknowledged that he provided the now-disputed documents" and "admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."
"Skeptics immediately seized on the typing in the memos, which included a superscripted "th" not found on all 1970s-era typewriters. As the controversy raged, CBS broadcast interviews with experts who said that some typewriters from that period could have produced the markings in question.
"Other critics saw factual errors in the documents, stylistic differences with other writing by Killian and incorrect military lingo.
"Some relatives of Col. Killian (Wife and son) disputed that the memos were real. His former secretary said the sentiments regarding Mr. Bush's failures as an officer were genuine, but the documents were not.
"Some document experts whom CBS consulted for the story told newspapers they had raised doubts before the broadcast and were ignored."
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/06/politics/main641481.shtml
Read between the lines below, as even Rather tries to cover up the fact in his own liberal way of apologizing:
http://espn-i.starwave.com/media/pg2/2001/1220/photo/i_rather_hi.jpg
Dan Rather Statement:
"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."
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/20/politics/main644546.shtml
And who was Rather's source?
Answer: Lt. Col. Bill Burkett
"CBS said former Texas Guard official Bill Burkett "has acknowledged that he provided the now-disputed documents" and "admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."
"Skeptics immediately seized on the typing in the memos, which included a superscripted "th" not found on all 1970s-era typewriters. As the controversy raged, CBS broadcast interviews with experts who said that some typewriters from that period could have produced the markings in question.
"Other critics saw factual errors in the documents, stylistic differences with other writing by Killian and incorrect military lingo.
"Some relatives of Col. Killian (Wife and son) disputed that the memos were real. His former secretary said the sentiments regarding Mr. Bush's failures as an officer were genuine, but the documents were not.
"Some document experts whom CBS consulted for the story told newspapers they had raised doubts before the broadcast and were ignored."
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/06/politics/main641481.shtml