CBS / Bush Memo Controversy
The case of the CBS / Bush Memo controversy deals with the authenticity of memos cited in a 60 Minutes report. CBS news anchor Dan Rather cited documents regarding President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. These documents are now being scrutinized by experts concerning the authenticity of these documents. The 60 Minutes segment, citing the memos in suspect, suggested lapses in President Bush's military record. The story, which aired September 8th, cited a memo allegedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, Bush's late squadron leader. The authenticality of the documents was questioned when documents experts noticed that the memos appear to have been written on a computer and not on the kind of typewriter that would have been used in the 1970s ("CBS Apologizes..."). The question of "How could that have happened?" has now arisen. CBS's source for the memos - retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett - recently admitted to CBS that he lied about obtaining the documents from another former National Guard member. Burk
The Bush-Cheney campaign proclaims that the Kerry campaign workers are behind the memo "mess-up" ("CBS Apologizes. A possible motive for now releasing such false, damaging information would be to change the national political focus away from the recent publicity Kerry has been facing with the Vietnam swift boat incident. A veteran newsman is in the twilight of a long and distinguished career. He insists that he did urge CBS to authenticate the documents on its own ("CBS Apologizes. " If this is the case, then why would the story have been aired? CBS says it was deceived by a source, but, if they had previous knowledge of this situation, then what else could explain why this story was ever aired? One possible journalistic ethical malfunction could be that there was partisan favoritism on behalf of CBS. He just wanted to taste that sweet medicine one more time" (Brown). How satisfying is it when a real news sensation takes hold instead of some tabloid trash moment" (Brown). Even though it seems obvious they had doubts about the papers' validity, they may have released the story anyway to cause tension and upheaval for the Bush campaign. Be it personal interest or the feeling of journalistic supremacy, it seems as though CBS may have opted to disregard accuracy and legitimacy in order to feel the rush of glory yet again. This case exemplifies the recent journalistic trend to turn to shady, unreliable sources for juicier information as opposed to the tried-and-true, accurate but not as interesting source of information.
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Acceptance Essays
