I know this doesn't have much to do with Korea, but I felt since our class sometimes gets in discussions of politics and the inherent bias in media, liberal or conservative, this was worth a look....
Dan Rather Statement after backing the authenticity for nearly 2 weeks.
Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a "60 Minutes Wednesday" story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question-and their source-vigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome. Now, after extensive additional interviews, 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.
What do you guys think. Is this enough to save Rather or should action be taken against him and the network...If anyone read the Post article a couple days ago wth pictures of an authentic document and the one issued by CBS, a fourth grader could tell one was a piece of junk.
So let me know what ya'll think.
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2 comments:
I agree with Mike. While this certainly is a stain for CBS, mistakes should eventually be forgiven.
Maybe I'm just jaded, but I believe most journalism to be politically biased to a degree. I believe there's a saying that goes, "Media sources are only as liberal as the conservative corporations that own them." In fact, while there's been a huge uproar about the CBS report calling the President's ethics in question, many slanted stories come out from the other side of the aisle that meet little criticism. For example, during the 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore was misquoted throughout the entire media as having said that he "invented the internet," when in fact, he said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet," meaning that he was largely responsible for the government funding that led to the development of the internet. Of course, as Al Franken puts it, the media fallaciously took this to mean that "late at night in his office in the Russell Building, after all the other senators had gone home, he had written the PASCAL code that allowed packet switching." This was one of many perpetuated misquotes that gave the impression that Gore was inflating his image.
Now, back to the present, isn't it funny that no one in the media is running story after story about how the President outright LIED and MISLED the Congress and the American people into supporting a war in Iraq? In May of 2003, if no one cared that Fox News was essentially cheerleading "Operation Iraqi Freedom," then CBS should be cut a little slack for making a mistake.
I found this article on Drudge this morning........I can't do that hyperlink thing when commenting, so here is the link:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005669
Here are the main parts:
With the scandal at CBS still festering, questions are being raised about whether a felony was committed when the network broadcast apparently forged memos in an attempt to discredit George W. Bush. Yesterday, the chairman of CBS's parent company chose Hong Kong as a place to drop a little bomb. Sumner Redstone, who calls himself a "liberal Democrat," said he's supporting President Bush.
The chairman of the entertainment giant Viacom said the reason was simple: Republican values are what U.S. companies need.
It was all the more surprising because the Boston-born Mr. Redstone was co-chairman of Edmund Muskie's presidential campaign in 1972. He's also a close friend of the other Massachusetts senator, Ted Kennedy. Monday's New York Sun, quoting the Federal Election Commission, said that since 1998 Mr. Redstone had given $50,000 to the Democratic Party. He's also donated the maximum $2,000 to the Kerry campaign, after supporting Al Gore in 2000.
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