Truegrit Lieutenant
Joined: 20 Aug 2004 Posts: 246 Location: Massachusetts
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Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 12:06 pm Post subject: The CBS forgeries story isn't over |
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Eventually the CBS forgeries story will get resolved; if enough good investigative journalists work on something, just about every stone gets turned up and most of the truth gets out. Expect to see more people at CBS news coming out of the closet on this with revelations about the breakdown in accepted journalistic standards, the breakdown in CBS own internal checks and balances.
For what it's worth, here's one possibility. At some point, Burkett, the alleged source of the forged memos, may himself come forward, perhaps tempted by a lucrative book contract, to tell all -- which could mean that he will be revealing himself as the "dirty trickster" who scammed Dan Rather and CBS. The Kerry camp may try to prevent this, which may explain why the Texas attorney, Van Os, who is firmly in the Democratic camp, is representing Burkett -- to at least prevent the true story coming out until after the election. That means keeping a wrap on Burkett, to keep the truth from coming out until after the election.
If it turns out that Burkett was the source, and Mapes and Rather knew of his intensely partisan motivations (and how could they not have known?) -- which would have required CBS to be absolutely certain of the validity of the memos before going on the air -- then Rather is toast. It becomes clear, then, that his motivations were partisan, which explains the failure of CBS' checks and balances on the memos. Afterall, they failed to take seriously the skepticism of experts that they had consulted!
I believe Rather's own colleagues at 60 Minutes will eventually pressure him to come clean on this, to salvage the reputation of the program. _________________ Ted Harwood, Ph.D.
Enlisted, U.S. Army ('57-'60) |
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