Friday, November 07, 2008

Interesting items coming from the Rather lawsuit against CBS

When CBS shut down Dan Rather's investigation of Bush's failure to complete his Air National Guard service back in 2004 they promised Dan that they would conduct an independent investigation of the issue. They did not do so. Instead they hired former attorney general Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press chief Louis Boccardi - both strong conservatives and Bush family allies - to conduct a white wash of CBS' closing down of Dan Rather's investigation.

Think it was not a CBS whitewash? Look at the list of other names considered for the "independent" investigation:
CBS’s full list of "others":

* William Buckley
* Robert Novak
* Kate O’Beirne
* Nicholas Von Hoffman
* Tucker Carlson
* Pat Buchanan
* George Will
* Lou Dobbs
* Matt Drudge
* Robert Barkley
* Robert Kagan
* Fred Barnes
* William Kristol
* John Podhoretz
* David Brooks
* William Safire
* Bernard Goldberg
* Ann Coulter
* Andrew Sullivan
* Christopher Hitchens
* PJ O’Rourke
* Christopher Caldwell
* Elliot Abrams
* Charles Krauthammer
* William Bennett
* Rush Limbaugh

At the very bottom of the list, someone wrote in one more name. "Roger Ailes."
Kate O'Bierne? Rush Limbaugh? Ann Coulter? William Kristol? If those individuals could conduct an independent investigation of Dan Rather it would be because someone was holding a gun at their heads. Thornburgh and Boccardi are no more objective.

Dan Rather is correct. CBS management was in the tank for George Bush and the Bush administration.

Jeff Bercovici presents more on the story.

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