www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/10/national/main665727.shtml
The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that conclu ded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with a rigid and blind defense of the 60 Minute s Wednesday report.
Dan Rather, is steppi ng down as anchor of The CBS Evening News but staying at CBS. We deeply regret the disservice this flawed 60 Minutes Wednesday report d id to the American public, which has a right to count on CBS News for fa irness and accuracy, said CBS President Leslie Moonves. The panel said a "myopic zeal" to be the first news organization to broad cast a groundbreaking story about Mr Bushs National Guard service was a key factor in explaining why CBS News had produced a story that was nei ther fair nor accurate and did not meet the organizations internal stand ards. The report said at least four factors that some observers described as a journalistic Perfect Storm had contributed to the decision to broadcast a piece that was seriously flawed. "The combination of a new 60 Minutes Wednesday management team, great def erence given to a highly respected producer and the networks news anchor , competitive pressures, and a zealous belief in the truth of the segmen t seem to have led many to disregard some fundamental journalistic princ iples," the report said. The piece was aired during a tight and hotly contested presidential race between Mr Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. The timing o f the story prompted charges of political bias against CBS News. While the panel found that some actions taken by CBS News encouraged such suspicions, the Panel cannot conclude that a political agenda at 60 Min utes Wednesday drove either the timing of the airing of the segment or i ts content. Questions about the authenticity of the documents were raised almost immediately. Some critics said the documents were most probably forgeries prepared on a modern word processer. Other critics questioned whether Killian would have - or could have - written them. The documents suggested that Mr Bush disobeyed an order to appear for a physical exam, and that friends of the Bush family tried to sugar coat h is Guard service. After a stubborn 12-day defense of the story, CBS News conceded that it c ould not confirm the authenticity of the documents and asked former Atto rney General Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press President Louis Boccardi to conduct an independent investigation into the matter. Their findings were contained in a 224-page report made public on Monday. While the panel said it was not prepared to brand the Killian documents as an outright forgery, it raised serious questions about their authent icity and the way CBS News handled them. The panel identified 10 serious defects in the preparation and reporting of the story that included failure to obtain clear authentication of the documents or to investigate the controversial background of the source of the purported documents, retired Texas National Guard Lt. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was also faulted for calling Joe L ockhart, a senior official in the John Kerry campaign, prior to the airi ng of the piece, and offering to put Burkett in touch with him. The pane l called Mapes action a clear conflict of interest that created the appe arance of political bias. The panel noted that the Guard segment was rushed on the air only three d ays after 60 Minutes Wednesday had obtained some of the documents from B urkett and that preparation of the piece was supervised by a new managem ent team of executive producer Josh Howard and senior broadcast producer Mary Murphy. A key factor in the decision to broadcast the piece was a telephone conve rsation between Mapes and Maj Gen. Bobby Hodges, Killians commanding of ficer during the period in question. Mapes told the panel Hodges confirm ed the content of the four documents after she read them to him over the phone. He also told the panel he had given Map es information that should have raised warning flags about the documents , including his belief that Killian had never ordered anyone, including Mr Bush, to take a physical. Hodges said that when he finally saw the documents after the Sept. This alleged confirmation by Major General Hodges started to march 60 Min utes Wednesday into dangerous and ultimately unsustainable territory: th e notion that since the content of the documents was felt to be true, de monstrating the authenticity of the documents became less important. Mapes telephone conversation with Hodges was part of a vetting process th at the panel concluded was wholly inadequate, largely because it had to be done so quickly. The key executives vetting the piece were West, Howa rd, and Murphy. After rushing the piece to air, the panel said, CBS News compounded the e rror by blindly defending the story. In doing so, the news organization missed opportunities to set the record straight. The panel finds that once serious questions were raised, the defense of t he segment became more rigid and emphatic, and that virtually no attempt was made to determine whether the questions raised had merit, the repor t concluded.
Andrew Heyward ordered West to review the opinions of document e xaminers who had seen the disputed documents and the confidential source s supporting the story. Had this directive been followed promptly, the panel does not believe tha t 60 Minutes Wednesday would have publicly defended the segment for anot her 10 days, the report said. The panel made a number of recommendations for changes, including: Appoint a senior Standards and Practices Executive, reporting directly to the President of CBS News, who would review all investigative reporti ng, use of confidential sources and authentication of documents. Personn el should feel comfortable going to this person confidentially and witho ut fear of reprisal, with questions or concerns about particular reports . Foster an atmosphere in which competitive pressure is not allowed to pr ompt airing of reports before all investigation and vetting is done. Allow senior management to know the names of confidential sources as we ll as all relevant background about the person needed to make news judgm ents. Appoint a separate team, led by someone not involved in the original re porting, to look into any news report that is challenged.
Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi, members of the panel that probed the CBS News story on President Bush's National Guard service, criticize the handling of the story.
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