New FactCheck.org Document: Update: CBS retracts documents

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Paul Saffo <pls () well com>
Date: September 20, 2004 7:55:56 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
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 () FactCheck org>
> Date: September 20, 2004 12:44:34 PM PDT
> To: <pls () well com>
> 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.
> To unsubscribe from future FactCheck.org emails, please visit 
> http://www.factcheck.org/unsubscribe.aspx?EmailId=48172.

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