[IP] New FactCheck.org Document: Update: CBS retracts documents
Begin forwarded message:
From: Paul Saffo <pls@xxxxxxxx>
Date: September 20, 2004 7:55:56 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: New FactCheck.org Document: Update: CBS retracts documents
Dave-
This from Factcheck. Of course, some on this list think FactCheck is
biased, so they can of course ignore this ;-)
-p
Begin forwarded message:
From: <SubscriberServices@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 20, 2004 12:44:34 PM PDT
To: <pls@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: New FactCheck.org Document: Update: CBS retracts documents
Update: CBS retracts documents
09.20.2004
CBS News retracted some apparently faked documents Sept. 20, saying
the source of the memos admitted misleading the
organization's reporters.
FactCheck.org had posted the documents Sept. 9, in an update to an
article posted the previous day concerning a TV ad attacking Bush's
service in the Texas Air National Guard. We did so after CBS's 60
Minutes had reported them, and after the White House Press office had
supplied copies to reporters without questioning their authenticity.
We then withdrew those documents Sept. 10, noting that they "may be
forgeries" based on numerous questions raised by other news
organizations and websites.
In a public apology , CBS News Anchor Dan Rather said, in part:
Rather: 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.
The documents purported to be memos written by Bush's former squadron
commander in 1972 and 1973.CBS stopped short of calling the documents
forgeries, saying only that they no longer had confidence in their
source and could no longer vouch for them. However several experts
have now concluded that they seem most likely to have been written on
a computer using Microsoft Word, not on any typewriter in use in 1972.
We at FactCheck.org are now satisfied that the memos were indeed
faked, and so they can tell us nothing one way or another about Bush's
Guard service. We hope to make this our last word on
these documents. Fascinating as the CBS Memo saga has become, it is
now a story primarily about the news media and not the presidential
campaign which is our primary focus. We will leave further comment
about CBS and its sources to others.
Please visit http://www.factcheck.org/miscreports.aspx?docid=263 to
view this announcement in full.
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