Day: September 20, 2004

Burkett Demanded and Received Quid Pro Quo: Documents for Access to Joe Lockhart

When I asked here if Bill Burkett received a quid pro quo from Mary Mapes I assumed we would never really know the answer. Boy was I wrong. According to USA Today,

Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would help arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.

“At Burkett’s request, we gave his (telephone) number to the campaign,” said Betsy West, senior CBS News vice president.

CBS would not discuss the propriety of the network serving as a conduit between its partisan source, Burkett, and the Kerry campaign. “It was not part of any deal” with Burkett to obtain the documents, West said, declining to elaborate.

But Burkett said Monday that his contact with Lockhart was indeed part of an “understanding” with CBS. Burkett said his interest in contacting the campaign was to offer advice in responding to Republican criticisms about Kerry’s Vietnam service. It had nothing to do with the documents, he said.

Hmmm…maybe someone should tell West that Burkett is an “unimpeachable source” opposed only by right wing political operatives. This is turning into a conservative wet dream — CBS acting as a conduit hooking up anti-Bush activists with the Kerry campaign in exchange for fake documents designed to impugn the president and influence the upcoming election. I can’t wait for the TV movie about this, presumably on Fox.

The bigger problem for the Kerry campaign is that they’re slowly but surely getting drawn into the scandal. Lockhart claims that he talked to Burkett for only a few minutes and not about any documents. But National Review notes some strangely convenient timing — CBS’ story runs on September 8, and on September 9 the DNC unveils its “Fortunate Son” campaign attacking Bush’s National Guard service. That campaign, coincidentally, is centered around the very documents that Lockhart says he never discussed with Burkett,

The CBS story based on the memos the evening of Sept. 8. Are we to believe that the Democratic National Committee put together “Operation Fortunate Son,” in which these memos are front and center, entirely in the hours after the CBS report, and yet had their campaign ready so that these memos are referred to in the first words of the AP story Sept. 9?

Are we to believe that the DNC didn’t know ahead of time what was in those memos, and how they could be used to attack the president?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a lawyer. Would this qualify as circumstantial evidence that CBS and the DNC were collaborating on using the memos before the story ran?

As Glenn Reynolds puts it, “Shouldn’t CBS just register as a 527 and have done with it?”

Indeed.

Does CBS See Itself as Part of the Kerry Campaign?

There was some small debate a bit ago in the discussion forum on whether or not the media was really liberal. PowerlineBog.Com points to this story which in many ways goes to the heart of that question. The highlights (emphasis added),

Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the presidential campaign and the papers. Lockhart, the second Kerry ally to confirm contact with retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, said he made the call at the suggestion of CBS producer Mary Mapes.

“He had some advice on how to deal with the Vietnam issue and the Swift boat” allegations, Lockhart said Monday, referring to GOP-fueled accusations that Kerry exaggerated his Vietnam War record. “He said these guys play tough and we have to put the Vietnam experience into context and have Kerry talk about it more.”

Lockhart said he thanked Burkett for his advice after a three to four minute call.

. . .

Lockhart said Mapes asked him the weekend before the story broke to call Burkett. “She basically said there’s a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you,” Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush’s Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records “that might move the story forward. She didn’t tell me what they said.”

What in the hell is a CBS producer doing acting as a conduit between an anti-Bush partisan and the Kerry campaign? Burkett has made it clear that he was angry that the Kerry campaign hadn’t returned his calls. Did he reach a quid pro quo with Mapes to contact Lockhart on his behalf in exchange for cooperation on the “60 Minutes II” piece about Bush’s National Guard service? Enquiring minds want to know.

Imagine the outrage if it were revealed that Fox’s Brit Hume had last year suggested that someone in the Bush administration given Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s John O’Neill a call because O’Neill was being helpful on an anti-Kerry story?

This is apparently what passes for “good faith” at CBS.

Source:

Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer. Associated Press, September 21, 2004.

Rather’s Lying Retraction

So today Dan Rather apparently joined the ranks of right wing Internet partisans and sort of conceded the documents were fake. But Rather can’t help do a little CYA himself with this embarassing lie in his non-apology,

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.

Hmmm…this is what Rather apparently thinks “good faith” means:

  • Treating a known anti-Bush partisan, Bill Burkett, as an “unimpeachable source”
  • Failing to interview Lt. Killian’s widow or son
  • Ignoring the document experts who told CBS that there were problems with the memos, while exagerrating what its signature expert Marcel Matley and document expert James Pierce actually said about the validity of the doucments
  • Giving the White House the documents three hours before broadcast and then claiming that since the White House didn’t disupte the authenticity in those 180 minutes that this was evidence they were authentic
  • Slamming as right wing partisans Internet critics who established within 24 hours of the 60 Minutes II broadcast that the documents were almost certainly fakes
  • Stonewalling and insisting that there was no need for an internal CBS investigation, much less an independent investigation, for more than a week after it was abundantly clear that there were serious problems with the memos

It was kind of funny to see Rather ripping on Fox the other day when a Fox reporter tried to get his comments about the scandal. Fox has been a favorite whipping boy of liberals and leftists and an object of scorn for many media elites. But Rather has proven the most diehard critics of the “liberal media” correct in this case — Rather and CBS were so anxious to get a scoop that could have affected the upcoming presidential election that they appear to have put their ideological and intellectual blinders on and ran the story based on almost nothing in the way of verification, and then stubbornly insisted the story was true . . . had to be true . . . when it was clear to most everyone else that the Emperor was wearing no clothes.

I have friends who refuse to watch anything but Fox, arguing that they’re simply sick of the “liberal media’s” lies and distortions. I think that’s extreme, but it’s less so now thanks to Rather’s bizarre behavior which pretyt much confirmed every single conservative criticism of network news.

Amusing CBS Story on Fake Documents

CBS’ website actually has a CBS/AP story that reads,

CBS News planned Monday to issue a statement about documents purporting to show President Bush neglected some duties when he was in the National Guard more than 30 years ago.

. . .

According to The Washington Post, the network plans to say it was misled about the authenticity of the documents.

The New York Times reports that CBS News officials met Sunday evening with anchor Dan Rather, the reporter of the contested story, to discuss the network’s next steps.

In other news, I tried to contact the publisher of Brian.Carnell.Com for his reaction to this story, but received a stern “no comment.”

Source:

CBS Plans New Memos Statement. September 20, 2004.