Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Appearing to be a "Rather" Partisan, Dirt Trick
From today's WSJ Review and Outlook opinion page:
"The big news in yesterday's mea culpa by CBS News isn't that the network was 'misled' about 'documents whose authenticity is in doubt,' as it was finally forced to concede. The story is the admission that the source Dan Rather trusted with CBS's reputation was none other than Bill Burkett, a noted antagonist of President Bush."
"Journalists--including us--use all manner of sources, of course, and many of them are partisans of one kind or another. But as much as possible we owe readers an indication of where those sources are coming from. And if those sources turn out to be wrong, as they sometimes are, then our obligation is to own up to the error as soon as possible. "
"The problem in this case is that before yesterday CBS never gave its viewers even a hint that its entire controversial story hinged on the word of someone who has made it one of his main goals in life to defeat Mr. Bush...."
Read the rest of the article here.
"The big news in yesterday's mea culpa by CBS News isn't that the network was 'misled' about 'documents whose authenticity is in doubt,' as it was finally forced to concede. The story is the admission that the source Dan Rather trusted with CBS's reputation was none other than Bill Burkett, a noted antagonist of President Bush."
"Journalists--including us--use all manner of sources, of course, and many of them are partisans of one kind or another. But as much as possible we owe readers an indication of where those sources are coming from. And if those sources turn out to be wrong, as they sometimes are, then our obligation is to own up to the error as soon as possible. "
"The problem in this case is that before yesterday CBS never gave its viewers even a hint that its entire controversial story hinged on the word of someone who has made it one of his main goals in life to defeat Mr. Bush...."
Read the rest of the article here.
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