1. Guard Vets Contradict Knox's Claims, CBS Experts Not Accredited Dan Rather didn't utter a word on Thursday's CBS Evening News about the controversy over the CBS memos everyone outside of CBS has concluded were forged, FNC on Thursday night found Texas Air National Guard veterans who contradicted the claims made by Rather and Marian Carr Knox on Wednesday's 60 Minutes that Bush was ordered to take a physical and then disobeyed the order, that Bush got any preferential treatment or was "resented" by other Guardsmen. And CNN's Jeanne Meserve noted on NewsNight that an expert document examiner pointed out... continue reading
1. Dan Rather Showcases Secretary Who Says Memos Fake But True The secretary to the late Lt. Colonel Jerry Killian told the Dallas Morning News that the memos touted by CBS in its effort to discredit President Bush are forgeries, but since she decided their content matched the thoughts expressed by Killian, 60 Minutes showcased her Wednesday night, thus setting a new journalistic standard: Use phoney evidence to smoke out support for your otherwise uncorroborated theory. Rather highlighted how she addressed a reference in one of CBS's forged memos "to retired General Staudt pushing for a positive officer training report... continue reading
1. CBS Has Chutzpah to Lecture George and Laura on Guard Evidence Introducing a Tuesday CBS Evening News story on President Bush's address to the National Guard convention in Las Vegas, Dan Rather, who has yet to answer any questions about the source or agenda of whomever gave CBS the faked memos, had the chutzpah to insist: "What some were waiting to see and hear was whether he would finally fully address still unanswered questions about his own service in the National Guard." John Roberts presumed that Bush should take CBS's memos seriously, complaining: "The President has yet to weigh... continue reading
1. Dan Rather's Defense, Memos "Could" Be Authentic, Grows Lamer Dan Rather's second effort Monday night to defend the authenticity of the memos supposedly about President Bush's National Guard record was even lamer that his first attempt on Friday night, though after having denigrated his critics on Friday as "partisan political operatives," on Monday's CBS Evening News he at least conceded that "some" of the questions about the documents "come from people who are not active political partisans." Rather began his defense by highlighting a shot at Bush from a Kerry operative at a DNC press conference and ended by... continue reading
1. Fret Forgery Issue Distracts from "Bush's Questionable Record" Forget the duplicity of CBS News in promoting likely forged memos allegedly written by President Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard. That controversy, Time magazine, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. and NPR's Juan Williams argued, is a distraction from what should really matter: Bush's National Guard record. Sunday, on CNN's Reliable Sources, Dionne asserted that in the latest issue, "Time magazine has it right in their last sentence: 'The breathless debate over typewriter fonts last week shifted the debate away from Bush's questionable record.'" In that article, Time's... continue reading
1. Rather Stonewalls, Fails to Address Evidence, Derides Critics Dan Rather, on Friday's CBS Evening News, spent nearly six minutes defending his Wednesday 60 Minutes story which used 32-year-old memos to impugn President Bush, documents which have come under wide suspicion of being forgeries. But instead of addressing those concerns, Rather stonewalled as he employed loaded language to reiterate the charges about supposed Bush misdeeds and put them in the worst possible light, denigrated his critics as "partisan political operatives" even though many mainstream media outlets have featured experts who concluded the memos are fakes, including NBC News and CNN... continue reading
1. Nets Concede Memos May Be Fake, But Only After Reciting Them Despite acknowledging the possibility that the Texas Air National Guard memos, which CBS News on Wednesday reported were written by the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, were actually forgeries, on Thursday night ABC, CNN, FNC and NBC displayed no reticence about plowing forward and repeating CBS's loaded charges that they proved President Bush received preferential treatment and disobeyed an order to complete a physical. MSNBC's Hardball and the CBS Evening News pretended there was no question over the memos. ABC's Terry Moran spent more than a minute on... continue reading
1. Squelched Swifties, But Now Pounce on "New Questions" About Bush If there were any lingering doubts about whether the mainstream media are in the tank for John Kerry, Wednesday's news judgments put them to rest as a media which ignored the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for months and then fretted about their connections to the Bush campaign, demanded the group's free speech "loophole" be plugged and that President Bush condemn their anti-Kerry TV ads, pounced in seeming unison on supposed "new questions" about Bush's Air National Guard service, a record already dissected for more than a week last... continue reading
1. CBS's Roberts Lays Out Case for How Kerry is No "Flip-Flopper" CBS's John Roberts, who last week twice highlighted "a one-day flip-flop" by President Bush on whether the war on terror could be won, on Tuesday night devoted an entire story to undermining Bush's claim that John Kerry is a "flip-flopper" on Iraq. "Kerry has consistently said holding Saddam accountable was and remains the right thing to do. And he's been just as consistent in his opposition to the way President Bush went to war," Roberts declared before he rationalized Kerry's vote against the $87 billion to fund troops... continue reading
1. Nets Turn 144,000 New Jobs & Lower Unemployment into a Negative The unemployment rate fell a tenth to 5.4 percent in August as 144,000 jobs were created during the month and the job creation number for July was revised upward by more than double, from 32,000 to 73,000 new jobs, but all the networks on Friday night managed to turn the Labor Department numbers, released that morning, into a negative. Neither ABC or CNN even mentioned the lower unemployment rate or upward revision for July as CBS also skipped the upward revision. ABC's Peter Jennings emphasized how the 144,000... continue reading