"The man CBS News touted as the "unimpeachable source" of explosive documents about President Bush's National Guard service turns out to be a former Guard officer with a history of self-described mental problems who has denounced Bush as a liar with "demonic personality shortcomings." So wrote the Washington Post this morning in the first paragraph of their report on CBS's awkward retreat from a report by Dan Rather that used forgeries to score political points against the President.
In a statement issued yesterday, Rather conceded that, "We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism."
Rather and CBS have not explained how, for ten days, they could defend as legitimate, documents that do not survive simple scrutiny. I have no training in the identification of forgeries, but five minutes spent reading a graphical analysis of the forgeries that the Post published on the weekend is sufficient to raise reasonable doubts in my simple mind. That CBS, with ample resources at its disposal and a professional code of conduct calling for their use, failed to uncover the forgeries before foisting them on the American people is evidence of gross professional misconduct. That Dan Rather for ten days denied the obvious failings in his work is a sign of gross personal misconduct.
No excuses, fire Dan Rather.
Posted by publius at September 21, 2004 07:26 AM