Abstract

CAN CBS EVER BE SORRY ENOUGH?

The article offers a look at CBS News. Let us see if we understand how our deregulated, free-enterprise media system works: In the heat of the election "60 Minutes" went with a story alleging that when he was a lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s, United States President George W. Bush received preferential treatment. The proof: memorandums purportedly from the files of his commander, Jerry Killian, showing young Bush's demands for special treatment. Then the rains came: Some bloggers said that the documents were forged, news anchor Dan Rather said they were not, Killian's secretary Marian Carr Knox said (a) that they do not look like documents that she typed, but (b) their content was consistent with other things her boss said at the time. For this, four top CBS employees were fired.