September 20, 2004

CBS News Coverage and False Stories

Letter to the Editor

It's important that when the news media makes a mistake that they should apologize for it and correct the story so the the viewing public knows the truth. This is especially true when the false story affects a sitting president. So I think it's about time that CBS News and the rest of the news media apologize for stories that turned out to be false and baseless. I therefore think it's about time the news media apologize to President Clinton for Whitewater - the Travelgate scandal - the haircut hoax - and comparing him to the movie "Wag the Dog" when he was trying to go after Osama bin Laden.

Posted by marc at September 20, 2004 05:15 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Why has the media (Fox)given so much air time for persecuting Dan Rather and CBS for reporting information from infactual documents after they were warned against it? I dont understand! When George W. Bush does it they dont seem to blame him at all! Who is it that should be held to higher standards, Bush or Rather? Our President or a T.V. reporter? From the reaction of the media I suppose it's more important for the T.V. guy to be honest with America. I guess it's no big deal if an unimportant guy like the PRESEDINT should mislead us even after being told by his own inside people that what he was going to say was WRONG!

Posted by: Voter at September 20, 2004 08:18 PM

From Michael Moore:

"'Bush and Kerry both suck. ... That's why I'm voting for John Kerry"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=9&u=/ap/20040921/ap_en_ot/michael_moore

Posted by: GottaLoveIt at September 21, 2004 11:58 AM

It's fairly common for the news media to publish errata. Qualified: paper news media.

It's rare for broadcast news media to admit to error, bias or misguidance.

In this case, I think CBS was attempting to push the issues brought to light by the falsified documentation before admitting to anything. The Bush campaign and the republican machine as a whole rightly refused any comment and attacked CBS and Rather with zeal--smart move.

Regarding the notion that presidents, candidates and other public personalities should admit to mistakes, deceptions or other wrongdoing... that's a rarity. Why would someone in that position intentionally shoot themselves in the foot unless it were to deflect something even greater?

Posted by: Gershwin at September 21, 2004 09:48 PM

See what the whole problem is that obviously someone sent this to him knowing that he would make a mistake such as, "the print type isn't the right style, it was changed one year before." I am sorry, but that just has Karl Rove's stink all over it. Not to mention that the way the story was broken was on freerepublic.com by a blogger. I mean give me a break. Also, don't forget that the post that said the memo was fake was posted less than an hour after the initial story on CBS.

I was not one for conspiracy theories until this election, but with the obvious ones brooding,- especially Gallup (the most biased recognized poll out there) picking the people to sit in the audience of the debates- I am now a fan of them. What this memo did was effectively kill the whole debate of bush's military service, but leave open the notsoswiftliars to libel Kerry. I am sorry, but I will never trust this administration again, and if you do, you must have some pretty big wool, sheeple.

Posted by: M. Wills at September 22, 2004 06:14 AM

Mark:
This is a post I made on my blog !
I will post this position one more time. Media could improve their credibility by simply declaring the reporters position and the corporate position on issues. "I am Dan Rather and at the current time I support John Kerry and it is CBS's position to do the same ! This is not an issue of privacy or ethics. If you make your living from being involved in reporting the news these disclosures are no different than an investment adviser disclosing his company and personal investments in a stock that he his recommending. I'm sure that the media supported these disclosures after the investment scandals we had. What's good for the goose is good for the gander !

CrazyDave
Email me !

Posted by: CrazyDave at September 22, 2004 09:20 AM
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