4 fired at CBS for report on Bush
Lack of scrutiny, rush to broadcast found
Four months after it aired the now-infamous "60 Minutes Wednesday" segment that used disputed documents to raise questions about President Bush's service record, CBS fired four employees yesterday and released a scathing independent postmortem that describes the story's journalistic failings.
The 224-page report from former US attorney general Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press president Louis D. Boccardi found that the Sept. 8 broadcast, which relied heavily on documents supposedly written by a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard that could not be authenticated, was driven "primarily by a myopic zeal to be the first news organization to broadcast what was believed to be a new story."
The report also assailed CBS for its "rigid and blind defense of the Segment after it aired despite numerous indications of its shortcomings." At the same time, the report said the authors "cannot conclude" that political bias played a role in the story.
CBS chairman Leslie Moonves announced in a statement that Mary Mapes, who produced the segment, had been fired immediately and that three others who had oversight -- senior broadcast producer Mary Murphy, executive producer Josh Howard, and senior vice president for prime time Betsy West -- have been been asked to resign.
In an interview yesterday, Moonves described the problem as that of "a star producer [Mapes] who wasn't checked at appropriate" points. "This was an example of a system gone bad. There was one person moving ahead."
Two CBS News luminaries were not punished -- President Andrew Heyward and Dan Rather, the departing "CBS Evening News" anchor and "60 Minutes Wednesday" correspondent. In hisstatement yesterday, Moonves cited the report's findings that Heyward warned subordinates to vet the segment carefully and urged caution before it aired. Moonves called him "an executive of integrity and talent, and the right person to be leading CBS News ."
The verdict on Rather, who has often been a lightning rod for conservative critics, was mixed. Moonves noted the authors' conclusion that Rather "was pushed to the limit in the week before the Sept. 8 broadcast" with his duties anchoring the Republican National Convention and covering Hurricane Frances in Florida.
"He asked the right questions initially, but then made the same errors of credulity and over-enthusiasm that beset many of his colleagues," Moonves said. "The Panel has found that his unwillingness to consider that CBS News and his colleague [Mapes] were in the wrong was a mistake, and that the broadcast would have benefited from a more direct involvement on Rather's part."
In the Sept. 8 broadcast, memos that purportedly were written by Bush's late squadron commander, Lieutentant Colonel Jerry Killian, indicated Killian had been pressured to "sugar coat" Bush's service record and that the future president had ignored instruction to take a physical examination necessary to fly. After the broadcast, a spokesman said the president had no recollection of ever seeing the documents prior to being shown them by "60 Minutes." The White House has said that Bush fulfilled all his obligations to the National Guard and was honorably discharged.
The CBS report on the broadcast says "the vetting process for the September 8 Segment was seriously flawed. . . . The Panel also believes that the vetting process was not sufficient because too much deference was given to Mapes because of her experience and much admired history at CBS News and '60 Minutes Wednesday,' as well as her association with Rather. "
Rather announced Nov. 23 that he will step down from his anchor post in March while remaining a "60 Minutes" correspondent. Moonves's statement hinted at a connection between the segment and Rather's departure, noting that Rather "has already apologized for the segment and taken personal responsibility for his part in the broadcast. He voluntarily moved to set a date to step down from the 'CBS Evening News' anchor chair in March, 2005."
When contacted by the Associated Press, Mapes and an aide to Rather said they hadn't read the report and had no comment.
In his interview with the Globe, Moonves said discussions about a succession plan for Rather began last summer, adding that it is was unknown what influence the "60 Minutes" controversy might have had on the timing of Rather's exit.
Former CBS correspondent Marvin Kalb said yesterday that Moonves "appears to be linking Dan's decision to leave the anchor chair to this crisis at CBS. . . . There's an underlying message here, too. He's saying the anchors are involved in too many things . . . and they lean on the producers excessively."
On news magazine programs such as "60 Minutes," producers tend to do the bulk of story generating, reporting, and interviewing prior to broadcast.
During a conference call with reporters yesterday, Thornburgh indicated that Rather was not particularly engaged in the preparation of the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story. "Dan played a somewhat minimal role in the actual production of the piece," he said. "He actually never even saw the segment before it aired ."
Andrew Tyndall, publisher of The Tyndall Report, which monitors network newscasts, said yesterday that the real story was the survival of Rather and Heyward. " 'Heyward keeps his job,' to me, is the main headline out of this report," Tyndall said. "The second most significant thing is that Rather is almost invisible in this report. How can his face be on a discredited report on '60 Minutes' and his punishment is he keeps his job at '60 Minutes'?"
Questions about the authenticity of the National Guard documents, which suggested that Bush had failed to meet National Guard standards and was getting preferential treatment, arose immediately after the story aired. After initially defending the story, CBS's message changed on Sept. 20, when Rather, on the evening newscast, said the network "could no longer vouch for [the documents'] authenticity."
The controversy mushroomed a day later when Joe Lockhart, an adviser to John F. Kerry, said he had spoken to the source of the questionable documents, retired Texas Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, at the suggestion of Mapes. At the time, USA Today reported Burkett's assertion that arranging such a conversation was a condition for his turning over the documents. By the time CBS announced the appointment of the Thornburgh and Boccardi on Sept. 22, the "60 Minutes Wednesday" report was a full-fledged political issue, with Republicans suggesting an improper Kerry-CBS News connection.
About 70 people, including 32 CBS News staffers, were interviewed for the report, which found a systemic breakdown in both the reporting on the National Guard story and the network's response to questions raised after it aired. But the report said the authors were unable to conclude "with absolute certainty" whether the documents supposedly written by Lieutenant Colonel Killian were authentic or forgeries.
The report found that CBS News failed "to obtain clear authentication of any of the Killian documents from any document examiner"; failed to establish "the chain of custody" on the documents; did not adequately challenge the accuracy of the story before it was broadcast; and initially defended the segment "without adequately probing whether any of the questions raised had merit."
It also said Mapes's role as an intermediary between Burkett and the Kerry campaign represented "a clear conflict of interest -- that created the appearance of a political bias."
One recurring theme in the report is that competitive pressures drove CBS to move too quickly to air material that had not been authenticated. "Once the documents were obtained . . . there was frenetic effort to 'crash' the Segment, meaning to prepare the Segment for broadcasting quickly," the report states.
Yesterday Moonves also announced a series of reforms recommended in the report. He appointed Linda Mason, the network's vice president of public affairs, to the new position of senior vice president of standards and special projects. And he unveiled other measures to tighten up the reporting and vetting procedures at the network 