CBS News Wraps Up Internal Investigation on MemoGate

Does anyone remember MemoGate?

CBS finally issued their final MemoGate report today on the falsified National Guard documents that CBS News used in their September 8th, 2004, edition of 60 Minutes. Those falsified documents accused President Bush of lying about his National Guard service during the Vietnam era. It appears that the investigation was very thorough.

However, some of their conclusions are wrong. There was indeed an axe to grind and party stalwarts at CBS attempted to carve a piece out of George W. Bush's hide to help Senator Kerry on Election Day.

It was a character assassination attempt that went seriously wrong and CBS got caught on it. Their like-minded competitors criticized CBS for its actions on one hand, but then justified the reporting as being perfectly legitimate because the feeling behind it was "right on." Bull!

This entire story was not about Bush and Kerry, but about CBS News making the news instead of reporting it. It was wrong during the campaign, and it is wrong today.

Stunts like this have made it possible for right-wing news organizations to attract a huge number of viewers. Why? Because they tell the other side of the story. Who likes to hear one side of an argument before taking a side? Most informed people want to know the issues before deciding on where they stand and are tired of news organizations who use an emotional appeal to tell only one side of a much larger story.

The right-wing media has nothing to crow about either. They've done their fair share of rubbish reporting too. All news organizations should pay attention to what's happened to CBS because the same thing could happen to them if they take short-cuts and try to make the news instead of reporting it.

A personal suggestion to the CBS people who lost their jobs today over this scandal: you ought to consider running for office. If you feel that strongly about your politics, then do something about it. But don't pretend to be objective journalists, because you clearly are not. Your own falsified report proves it.