Important Update: It seems that Howard hasn’t filed suit against CBS. He’s hired a lawyer to prepare a suit when the time comes. Sources say he will sue if CBS doesn’t clear his name. In that regard, count on this post title being accurate soon enough. Sacrificial lambs must die. Figuratively speaking.
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I read the 224-page “Rathergate” Report but never got the chance to blog about it.
In a nutshell, the Texas Army National Guard story was the baby of producer Mary Mapes (pictured below left), a Bush hater who chased the story for five years. During an election cycle where her guy (John Kerry) was getting clobbered by the Swift Boat vets and his own dull personality, Mapes and others, including Dan Rather (who is still employed at CBS), ran what’s known in the report as the “Segment,” which was based on badly forged memos and a witness who lied to the producers during the investigation.
In the Segment, which ran on September 8, and others to follow, Rather misled viewers by implying that the obviously forged memos had been authenticated by CBS’s experts. In fact, none of the four document examiners authenticated the documents, nor could they because the documents were copies, not originals. One of the handwriting and document experts warned Mapes not to go on the air with the documents, and she was told to mind her own business.
Bottom line — Inexplicably, the “Panel” concluded that CBS employees involved in this sloppy mess, despite glaring leftism (made-up word), were not motivated by political bias but simply a competitive rush to get the segment on the air to beat the other networks. Here’s a PDF of the report.
By the way, did I mention that Mapes and Bill Burke, the star witness who gave her the forged documents and lied about where he got them, had been in contact with the Kerry campaign during the Segment’s preparation??? It was very frustrating to have followed Rathergate from the beginning, watch bloggers develop the story, then read the report and see page after page of political bias, only to have the Panel wimp out in the end. This was only about getting on the air with Bush dirt first. That’s all, nothing more, they said. Weenies.
Four employees at CBS were fired over this mess, but compared to the head honchos, they are just underlings and scapegoats. By the way, the fired employees are still there. Many speculated they were preparing to sue for wrongful termination.
There is so much more to the report, but that should give you a general idea. WorldNetDaily has a good report round-up, and Power Line lawyer/blogger Paul Mirengoff does an excellent job applying legal principles to this mess to show that CBS’s bias couldn’t have been more obvious. Ironically, one member of the Panel was Attorney General.
This leads us to Josh Howard, an executive producer who tried to fix this mess before it spiraled even more out of control. He was rebuffed by top brass. Ratherbiased.com cites the section of the report which proves he wanted to admit the memos were forged. Also see Power Line.
The New York Observer has the story. Incidentally, I think the story is poorly written. But that’s not the point, I guess. Here’s a excerpt:
Mr. Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers — his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West — haven’t resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network retract Mr. Moonves’ remarks, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name….Mr. Howard also believes, those sources said, that the report itself excludes evidence that would implicate top management at CBS and restore Mr. Howard’s reputation in the television news business.
A senior official at CBS told NYTV that Mr. Howard’s claims had no basis in fact and that management had only acted on the findings of the report, which the company deemed thorough, accurate and independent.
I find myself in the ironic position of defending Howard, although at the time I read the report, I thought his ouster was justified. He should have pushed harder to exclude the documents and/or require more evidence of their authenticity from Mapes.
CBS got off easy, and many bloggers expressed the same sentiment after news of the firings. Dan Rather is still there, so we gained no satisfaction from the “resolution.” Despite the report’s conclusion that CBS, including Rather, mislead viewers, he and other top folks still have their jobs.
I’m behind Howard all the way on this, and I hope he’s aided by a blog swarm that forces CBS to either retract their statements about him or initiates another investigation into CBS. A real investigation this time.
See the Rathergate category for background information. My personal favorite is the post that started it all. The Boston Globe based their story on the memos and tried to back-pedal and point fingers when they turned out to be forgeries. Weenies.
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Links: INDC Journal, Wizbang (and here), interesting semi-related post at JustOneMinute, Liberty Dad, Power Line, Michelle Malkin, Powerpundit, Confederate Yankee, ThoughtsOnline…
Captain Ed is on Howard’s side, too. So is Dinocrat. This could get interesting.
Slant Point also supports Howard.
Do you support Howard’s actions? Do you think he should just go away? In order to understand exactly what’s going on, you probably should invest some time in reading the report.
Update: Cross-posted at Ratherbiased.com.
Semi-related post at Vodkapundit.
