PrintJanuary 11, 2005
What the CBS Report actually admits
I, who never watch CBS News, spent yesterday afternoon, reading the lengthy Thornburgh/Boccardi Report. Within its considerable limitations, it is a fine, well—detailed view of the CBS TANG memo scandal. While it could have asked other questions, and utilized other investigative approaches (for example, analyzing the telephone records of various key individuals), given its methodology, it tells us quite a bit that is embarrassing to those who are paying for it.
The Report reveals what most of us who don't watch network news already knew: CBS News is a shoddy operation all around, one more concerned with production values and beating the competition to provocative shows than it is with conveying useful, authentic information to its viewers. And at the conclusion of my read, I think CBS owes one final thing to its audience: a detailed on—air review of the significant evidence contrary to its September broadcasts, which it had and either failed to air or...(Read Full Article)
