Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. [TAPE PLAYS]
DAN RATHER: Are those documents authentic, as experts consulted by CBS News continue to maintain? Or were they forgeries or re-creations? We will keep an open mind, and we will continue to report credible evidence and responsible points of view as we try to answer the questions raised about the authenticity of the documents.
BOB GARFIELD: Well, okay. We have the answers. Or, at least, some of them. According to the independent investigation of Memogate, CBS News rushed to the air with a haphazardly reported story about the president's National Guard Service without knowing if the memos cited in the story were real or fake. The tally of repercussions: four producers fired, Dan Rather giving up his evening news anchor chair, and cackles of delight from the political right, who claim vindication in their mantra that CBS News and the like have it in for the president and the GOP.
"I think," said Republican political consultant Keith Apple, "it's a warning to the rest of the media." Yeah. A warning. "Straighten up and fly...right."
Well, don't expect the Fox Newsification of CBS, but also don't expect that shelved 60 Minutes report on the bogus Iraq-Niger uranium deal to air any time soon.
It's worth noting that the panel found no evidence of political bias -- just shoddy reporting in the race for a big scoop. It's also worth noting that the underlying story about favoritism for Lieutenant George Bush during the Vietnam War has been amply documented by other news organizations --notably the Boston Globe and Associated Press. It's also worth noting that the Memogate investigation itself never determined that the disputed memos were forged.
Doesn't really matter. What the public will see is smoking gun evidence of media bias, which means that any lies and misdeeds of the GOP, when exposed by an occasionally vigilant press, can be more easily dismissed. It's the modified O.J. defense -- it's the "bias" card. Pay no attention to my footprints, my flight from prosecution and the victims' blood in my car -- you're out to get me because I'm..."Republican."
Never mind that the administration's notion of answering to the public is, as we learned last week, to bribe columnists to print propaganda. Never mind the press's constitutional role as watchdog over every government in power. Never mind truth. The reality is O.J. was acquitted.
It's hard to know whom to resent more, the Bush administration, now freer than ever to hide from public scrutiny or the scoundrels and screwups who delivered that impunity on a silver platter.
