Newspapers Respond to '60 Minutes' Confession

By: E&P Staff As CBS News took the big hit Monday for botching its use of suspect documents in a "60 Minutes" segment, newspapers responded with coverage that was appropriately harsh, while not often admitting that many of them, the day after the show was aired, accepted the network's claims about the documents.

Some papers, such as USA Today, quickly put together blow-by-blow accounts of the past 12 days for their Tuesday editions.

Tim Goodman in the San Francisco Chronicle asked: "Is Dan Rather theatrical enough to quit? And if not, would there be anyone at CBS News left to fire him who's not already going out the door with him?"

Leon Lazroff of the Chicago Tribune quoted a variety of newspeople, including former CBS correspondent Daniel Schorr, who said, "we are living in an era of people fighting over whether the media is liberal or conservative. So this gives substance to the allegations that news organizations are not on the sidelines."

The Detroit News editorialized: "When one media outlet hollers 'gotcha!' as CBS did with President Bush, it had better know exactly what it's got and whence it came, or all media -- and ultimately a free and informed society -- will pay the price."

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, who was in the middle of an online chat when the CBS apology broke, soon wrote a Web piece that concluded, "The statement represents a huge embarrassment for the network, but it may help defuse a crisis that has torn at the network's credibility."

His fellow Post columnist, E.J. Dionne, pointed out that "what's good for Rather, who is not running for president, ought to be good for George Bush, who is. 'There are a lot of questions and they need to be answered.' Surely that presidential sentiment applies as much to Bush's guard service as to Rather's journalistic methods."

In an editorial prepared for its Tuesday edition, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer declared: "In the flap over the 35-year-old military records of George W. Bush and John Kerry, it seems poetic justice that discredit has fallen on those who would discredit them. First it was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Now it's the Columbia Broadcasting System. That second violation of public trust is by far the more damaging."

Ken Herman in the Atlanta Constitution tracked down the lawyer for Bill Burkett, the man accused of snookering "60 Minutes." The attorney, David Van Os, put the blame on CBS. "They just did the slickest job of sweet-talking him," Van Os said. "Bill Burkett trusted and believed that CBS, being a huge news organization and with the resources to do so, would conduct a proper, professional investigation before they did anything. He now knows they haven't done it. It's obvious to the world they haven't done it."

The New York Times found another Burkett attorney, who also attacked CBS. It also spotted a fresh Burkett posting on an e-mail newsletter for Texas Democrats: "Don't believe everything you read -- even from CBS."

Indeed, as the Los Angeles Times put it, "Some say Bill Burkett is a crusader for the truth. Others say he's an angry veteran on a mission."

The New York Times was suffering from the unfortunate timing of finally, on Monday, producing its first major, front-page investigation of President Bush's mysterious "lost year" in the Guard in 1972, and then having attention deflected from it almost immediately by the CBS admission.