January 10, 2005
CBS sacks four in wake of Rathergate report
The Rathergate report is out, and CBS News has dumped four employees (including infamous 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes) in it's wake.
Four CBS News employees, including three executives, have been ousted for their role in preparing and reporting a disputed story about President Bush's National Guard service.Of course CBS anchor Dan Rather is stepping down from the center seat at CBS Evening News over the mess as well.The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with "rigid and blind" defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report.
Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Betsy West. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated.
The full "independent report" is online for your perusal in PDF format.
The report is a WHITEWASH. Dan and many others should be fired not just the sacrifical lambs. A criminal investigation should be persued to determine how many were involved in the attempt to influence the election.
Posted by: Harold Lewis at January 13, 2005 12:00 PMRathergate report is a lie. One month later no one has been fired!
Posted by: jo macDougal at January 29, 2005 06:34 PMRathergate report like Rathergate is bogus. Dick was hired because of his fued woth the Bushes. He set out to NOT find bias and so he found none.
Posted by: Rod Stanton at February 1, 2005 04:46 AM