CBS admits memo fraud

CBS News admitted yesterday that it was duped when Dan Rather presented as authentic now-discredited memos that accused President Bush of shirking his duties as a Texas Air National Guard fighter pilot during the Vietnam War.

The announcement, in which CBS said “we deeply regret” using the documents it “cannot prove” are real, was a remarkable about-face for the storied network news division.

CBS had insisted since the first airing on “60 Minutes” Sept. 8 that memos purportedly written by Mr. Bush’s squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, are bona fide.

Mr. Rather had himself resisted an internal inquiry and called critics of the report “partisan political operatives.”

But seven minutes into last night’s “CBS Evening News With Dan Rather,” the anchorman introduced a segment on the memos, this time to admit mistakes on his part and issue an apology — directly to viewers.

CBS News acknowledged for the first time yesterday that retired Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, a disgruntled former guardsman, was its source for the four memos, and the network accused him of victimizing it by lying to producer Mary Mapes.

On the newscast, Mr. Rather introduced a brief clip of a testy interview he conducted with the retired lieutenant colonel in Texas this weekend.

In the interview, Col. Burkett admits that he lied to CBS when he said the documents had come from a former guardsman.

“I simply threw out a name that was basically I guess to take a little pressure off for a moment” as the CBS producer pressed for the name of the source, Col. Burkett told Mr. Rather.

Col. Burkett later provided a second name as the source, but CBS says it has been unable to verify the source’s connection to the Guard.

On Sept. 10, when Mr. Rather was asked whether an internal probe was needed, he said it was “not even discussed, nor should it be.” Yesterday, CBS said a soon-to-be-named panel would conduct an “independent review” to “help determine what actions need to be taken.”

Col. Burkett has waged a long campaign to discredit Mr. Bush’s military service. A CBS statement last week said it got the memos from “unimpeachable sources.”

Col. Burkett, who has connections to Texas Democrats, has retracted some of his past accusations. Witnesses have failed to support his other accusations.

Journalistic ethics require reporters to conceal the identities of confidential sources, unless the source deliberately provides wrong information or agrees to be named.

Story Continues →