The real problem at CBS
Mon Jan 10, 2005 at 11:07:28 PM PDT
Let me start by saying that Mary Mapes and others at CBS made some mistakes but that the mistakes they made weren't exactly the mistakes they have been accused of by a supposedly independent commission. "Memogate," or whatever you want to call it, isn't what really went wrong at CBS. What did go wrong is the same thing that has gone wrong in much of the rest of the media: They have sold their journalistic integrity to curry favor with Republican power players.
That supposedly independent commission whose "findings" are being reported all over the main stream media had three main goals: to scapegoat Mapes and her co-workers, to spin the story in such a way as to make it appear that the underlying accusations about illegal and/or unethical special treatment shown to President Bush during his time in the Texas Air National Guard were totally unfounded, and probably to discourage others from doing a story that might put Bush in a bad light.
In its effort to tar Mapes and exonerate Bush, the commission played fast and loose with a lot of the details. Those of us who were paying close attention to the story before, during and after it was reported by CBS are not fooled by the commission's spin. Dan Rather is neither stupid nor a journalistic neophyte and the week after the initial report he basically confirmed that the story told by the questionable memos reflected the truth whether or not the memos themselves were real. He did that by interviewing Marian Knox, former secretary to Killian who was privy to the goings on at the Texas Air National Guard during the time in question. The commission claims that Knox no longer confirms the story, but it is clear to all of us who saw her interviewed that Knox confirmed that the details revealed in the memos are true, whether or not the memos themselves are genuine. In addition to misleading about what Knox actually said, the commission gets a lot of other facts wrong, some of which has been documented by Paul Lukasiak
here.
In addition to using a supposedly independent commission to scapegoat Mapes and spin the story in a way that is favorable to President Bush, CBS clearly and openly curries favor with the Bush administration. A couple of days ago word circulated that Viacom, parent company of CBS, was looking for a lobbyist to hire and that Democrats need not apply. Today it has been announced that they have hired a firm owned by Ken Mehlman's brother. The opening paragraph of that story says it all (link):
CBS parent Viacom Inc. is working overtime to get in the good graces of the White House and the Republican-led Congress.
You may remember that CBS News President Andrew Heyward was allowed to keep his job while others got the axe. Ignore the official story that CBS is telling about Heyward's relative innocence in this little matter and take a look at the real reason he still works for CBS: He made nice with the White House (
link):
Mehlman & Vogel's hiring came a few weeks before CBS News President Andrew Heyward dropped in on Bush communications director Dan Bartlett to thaw chilly relations with the White House. Vogel wouldn't say whether his firm set up the meeting.
Here's the message that Vogel is supposedly selling, though important details are left out (
link):
Vogel will be trying to polish Viacom's image in a town where people are given to saying things like, "Cable is a bit like pharmaceutical companies or Microsoft. Everybody loves the product but feels that the industry is a big and potentially dangerous player." The speaker? Vogel's partner, Bruce Mehlman, in 2003.
Let me add some important details that are part of that message. Basically Viacom agrees to grease the skids a little (they are evidently the only client of the firm owned by Ken Mehlman's brother, and I'm guessing they are paying something in at least the seven figure range) and it agrees to not run stories that put the President in a bad light. This little episode with a supposedly independent commission is evidence enough that they want to make nice with this White House. And as for the other details, in exchange for money and cooperation the White House agrees to not put CBS in a bad light or saddle it with yet more exorbitant fines by using its authority over the likes of Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Powell, et al. I don't have the proof of that last bit in this case. But I have seen how it has worked in other cases. That I am right will be easily confirmed in the days ahead as the aforementioned stooges let slip with nice words about CBS here and there.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what really went wrong at CBS. Whatever romantic notions you might have had about freedom of the press need to be put in a box for safekeeping for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, the only free press that is left is on the internet.
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