Broadcasting & Cable
Players involved in the notorious 60 Minutes II story, reported by Dan Rather,�which employed dubious documents regarding President Bush�s National Guard service, may have been rooting for a John Kerry victory.
No, it wasn’t that old bugaboo liberal media bias as much as it was a bias toward saving their own skins. The report from an internal investigation into the documents mess was purposely being held until after the election.
Pre-election, the feeling in some quarters at CBS was that if Kerry triumphed, fallout from the investigation would be relatively minimal. The controversial piece�s producer, Mary Mapes, would likely be suspended or fired, but a long list of others up the chain of command – from 60 Minutes II executive producer Josh Howard, to Rather and all the way up to news division President Andrew Heyward – would escape more or less unscathed.
But now, faced with four more years of President Bush, executives at CBS parent Viacom could take a harder line on the executives involved.
(Via Drudge)
On a related topic, Eric Engbert a retired correspondant for CBS criticizes the “blogosphere” for publishing leaked exit polls.
“The public is now assaulted by news and pretend-news from many directions, thanks to the now infamous “information superhighway.” But the ability to transmit words, we learned during the Citizens Band radio fad of the 70’s, does not mean that any knowledge is being passed along. One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on.”
Oh, enough already. CBS had their asses handed to them by the blogosphere (in other words- the audience) because certain “professional journalists” perpetrated an intentional, albeit pathetically clumsy, attempt to influence the election. Period.
Only the most obtuse observers of human nature would believe that “Rathergate” was an isolated incident. It is only after long history of success in not getting caught that professional liars become so sloppy. Add another period.
Bitching about the leaking of exit polls is so much irrelevant smoke by Mr Engbert, though it does make one wonder how he can argue that the MSM knows better than to release exit polls because they are known to be unreliable, and “responsible” journalists know better. If this is indeed the case, one should ask him to explain why they commission the polls in the first place. If exit polls require a full day of sampling to provide meaningful results, then why not just wait for the ballot counting to start?
Of course, we should give Mr. Engbert the benefit of the doubt. It could well be that he is basing his opinion on information recieved anonymously from a Kinkos in Texas that has been authenticated by experts contacted by CBS.
With several pithy observations about the fact-checking failures by Eric Engberg, James Joyner weighs in.
Paul, at Wizbang reviews events and calls ’em as he sees ’em. “The whole right side of the blogosphere knew the numbers were bogus long before CBS and the MSM knew”
