BLACK EYE
January 10 , 2005

CBS ousted four executives Monday for their roles in a 60 Minutes report about President Bush's National Guard service that relied in part on apparently forged documents. Follow-up Discussion The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

 

Online NewsHour Special Reports: Credibility in Question Online Forum: Ask two experts about the CBS case and media practices. Case Study: CBS News and the National Guard Report Media Watch Jan. 10, 2005: Update: CBS Ousts Four Executives Over Flawed 60 Minutes Report Sept. 20, 2004: CBS News announced it could no longer vouch for the authenticity of the memos. Sept. 16, 2004: Experts raise questions about the authenticity of memos cited in a 60 Minutes report about President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media   News for Students: Media Studies     CBS News Independent Report on CBS (PDF file) The Poynter Institute	TERENCE SMITH: After more than three months of investigation, the independent panel, former U.S. attorney Richard Thornburgh, and retired Associated Press executive Lou Boccardi, released an exhaustive 224-page examination of CBS News and the controversial 60 Minutes report.
	CBS' 'zeal' to break the story
	TERENCE SMITH: Describing a perfect storm of mistakes and omissions, the report charged that CBS disregarded basic principles of journalism because of a "myopic zeal" to be the first news organization to broadcast what was believed to be a new story. DAN RATHER: Tonight we are new documents and new information on the president's military service and the first-ever interview with the man who says he pulled the strings to get young George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard. TERENCE SMITH: The Sept. 8 60 Minutes' report challenged President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard with what it said were previously undisclosed documents from the personal files of Bush's commander, Col. Jerry Killian.
	Failure to check accuracy
	TERENCE SMITH: Dan Rather cited text from the memos where Killian allegedly wrote that Bush has made no attempt to meet his training certification or flight physical, that Killian believed Bush was talking to someone upstairs and Killian concluded, "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job." DAN RATHER: We consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic. TERENCE SMITH: Revealing the story and the reporting behind it, the investigating panel found that 60 Minutes failed to authenticate the documents relating to President Bush's service, failed to find and interview the original source of the documents, and provided a strident defense of the story after it was broadcast without adequately probing the questions that were being raised about its accuracy. Further, the report charged that CBS issued inaccurate press statements in defense of the story after it aired and broadcast misleading stories defending the segment on the CBS Evening News. In its own statement, accompanying the report, CBS conceded that Dan Rather was guilty of credulity and over-enthusiasm for the story, but that since he had already announced his departure from the anchor chair in march, no further action was appropriate.
	The aftermath of the internal investigation
	TERENCE SMITH: However, the network immediately announced the firing and resignations of four CBS senior staffers for their roles. Mary Mapes, the producer of the segment who had broken the story on the Abu Ghraib prison abuses earlier, was terminated immediately. Josh Howard, the executive producer of 60 Minutes Wednesday, Mary Murphy, a senior broadcast producer, and Betsy West, senior vice president of prime time programming were all asked to resign from CBS. The network's report examined the role of the news division president, Andrew Heyward, but concluded that he should continue in his position. At the White House this afternoon, press secretary Scott McClellan offered this reaction to the report and CBS' actions. SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, we felt all along that it was important for CBS to get to the bottom of this. CBS has taken steps to hold people accountable and we appreciate those steps. We also hope that CBS will take steps to prevent something like this from happening again. TERENCE SMITH: CBS also announced today the creation of a new senior vice president of standards and special projects, to verify future investigative reports on the network.

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