I'm In My Underwear

I've been following intently the progress of the counterfeit documents that 60 Minutes claimed were proof that Pres. Bush shirked his National Guard duties. I don't care whether he did or not, and I don't care if Sen. Kerry served in Vietnam or not. But this incident shows the depths to which some in the "news" business have sunk, and that saddens me because in some ways I consider myself a journalist.

The fact is, I write many of these posts while in my bathrobe or wearing next to nothing. Does that have any bearing on the veracity of what I write? I don't think so. That's why I take insult that an apologist for CBS is dissing bloggers when it's 60 Minutes that should be apologizing.

Jonathan Klein, a former executive vice president of CBS News who oversaw 60 Minutes said on Friday that you "couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of check and balances [at '60 Minutes'] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing."

There is now a preponderance of evidence that the documents in question are phonier than a campaign promise, and still 60 Minutes continues to defend their evidence. Worse, Dan Rather, who has been a respected journalist, continues to dispute the evidence against the documents. When I was learning journalism in high school, I was taught even then that a journalist keeps an open mind, checks his facts and doesn't go public with damaging information without overwhelming evidence. Like a scientist, a good journalist fits the theory to the facts, not the other way around.

It's just pathetic the way some people are trying to defend the documents. It reminds me of a little kid with mud on his shoes saying he hadn't gone outside. "A band of gypsies stole my shoes and when they brought them back they were dirty!" Yeah, right. It reminds me of the time they tried to blame Nixon's secretary for erasing 18 minutes of tape, when it was nearly impossible for her to have done so. All these suppositions that "if they had done this, with this rare equipment, and switched fonts in the middle..." are ludicrous. Nobody typing a document like that would take any more effort than absolutely necessary to get it typed. Get real!

Dan Rather could have checked his facts more thoroughly instead of running with a story just because it aided the candidate he liked. Once confronted with the evidence against the story, he could have made a retraction, like good journalists do, and moved on. But he didn't. He has shirked his duties as a journalist, and has become just a not-so-pretty face reading from a teleprompter. I expect his resignation soon.


Blog Tag: News   Blog Tag: Opinion   Blog Tag: CBS