CBS' 'independent' Rather panel would have looked more like the Wingnut Inquisition
By David Neiwert Friday Nov 07, 2008 12:00pm
The wingnuts have been proudly displaying Dan Rather's scalp on their trophy wall ever since they chased him out of CBS with the "Memogate" nonsense. But this particular scalp may be about to turn out not to be so dead after all.
Last year Rather filed a lawsuit against CBS that mostly drew derisive snorts from both the wingnuts and the Village Idiots, but which in fact promises to be very interesting indeed if the trial takes place. As things stand now, it's set to go to trial in February.
But already some noteworthy items are seeping out.
Felix Gillette at the New York Observer got a look at some of the documents and found a list of names that CBS executives had compiled for its "independent panel" to examine the claims against Rather.
The list includes Mr. Boccardi's name as well such seemingly reasonable potential candidates as David Gergen, Gene Roberts (former managing editor of The New York Times) and Dick Wald (former president of NBC News).
Then things get a little bit more conservative. Under the category "others" are the names of potential candidates such as… Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh.
Herein, 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 LimbaughAt the very bottom of the list, someone wrote in one more name. "Roger Ailes."
What, Torquemada wasn't available?
Eli has more.
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Looks like the member list for "Who's Who In Wingnuttery"
but in the interest of not promoting violence, I will abstain...
Why would you have someone who's expertise is selling weapons illegally to Iran via Israel looking into Dan Rather?
I recently heard that George W Bush and Dick Cheney will have time on their hands soon so why not add them to the list. I am sure they would be completely independent.
What, no Stephen Vincent Benét?
That list is nothing but members of the extreme far right. Its a lynch mob.
Very "Fair and Balanced". lol
Stories like that are like moonshots. Getting it wrong would be so potentially catastrophic you have to prove why it's ready to go. He and his producers had an obligation to question their sources and test their theses and prove why they were, respectively, reliable and air tight. Or walk away from the story based on the documentation in hand.
There was still a hellava tale to be told, at the least, about how all records of a Air Force officer just vanish.
Mike Savage must be really pissed.
Mike Wiener?
I'm always amazed when freaks like Dobbs and O'Reilly can actually in sound mind, call themselves independents.
that I didn't need to break out the Jack Daniels and my .38. How refreshing...
If it does, a trial would be every bit as juicy as the Watergate hearings, what with GWBush being subpoenaed and CBS News head Andrew Heyward having to give an accounting of himself. As for the "independent panel," I haven't seen anything more laughable since W's last outrageous gaffe.
It sure looks more like an agenda rather than a legit quest for facts. What's the problem here, CBS?
Can't be much of a wingnut list if it doesn't contain Johah Goldberg.
Seriously, this is a keepsake(like a most wanted) list. No matter what Obama does, this group will attack and try to destroy his Presidency....well before he takes the oath.
Bernard Goldberg is far from being an impartial judge, since he left CBS on bad terms as well.
And what's with the honor roll of fracking OPINION mongers, instead of actual journalists?
Well you have to admit, they are "others". Others I wouldn't give a damn about or believe a word they say.
Do you guys really know how deep this rabbit hole goes ?
Here is a clue...Wag that dog baby !
LA Times
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/feb/21/news/...
Rehearsal of War Coverage Backfires at CBS News
February 21, 1998 in print edition A-12
CBS jumped the gun Friday on a possible U.S. attack on Iraq: The network inadvertently transmitted a practice news report via satellite that could be picked up by television stations and viewers with special equipment.
Why Not Alberto Gonzalez!
Each and every one of these low-lifes names should be on a list above the door of Cell block D in a prison near you, for their part in what has been done to our country. For crimes against the US, the world and all it's peoples. Due to your greed,self-serving lies, propaganda, and your part as co-conspirators, we sentence you to be hung by the neck until you are dead, but forgiving souls as we are we commute your sentences to life with no parole. A criminal is a criminal,no matter what part he played in the crime, and this bunch has done far more hurt and harm than any killer or rapist ever could. These are people who look you right in the eyes and lie their ass off, knowing full well what they are doing, you don't get much lower than scum like this
I suppose their could be a good reason for it, I mean what do I know about how internal network investigations go, but that list REALLY looks like they had an agenda. Never mind who they picked, that list is damning.
What do I know?
Je ne sais quoi
John Locke.
right? the "fun" begins...
I think TJ Simmers from the L.A. Times should be added to this list... sports fans in L.A. might appreciate that.
Missing u, JD............
That picture looks like my chiropracter's office.
...and I'll mute these assholes immeadiately! Obama will do nothing right, according to this group of anarchists...just watch, they'll be so predictable.
...and CBS wonders why their ratings are dropping like a lead balloon. I guess satan was busy, getting ready for Jan 20,2008.
Isn't CBS a part of the Time/Warner group, the supposed "liberal" of the five main broadcast owners?
Back when the story broke, I did wonder about the veracity of the actual story, when all focused on the one document that was fake.
It felt a lot like the "I DID NOT SAY IT HERE" technique of BillO, when he was pinned down by Barney Frank on the comments on bombing the tower in SF. (Coit Tower?)
You have a real story, that you fear, insert a lie in there somewhere, expose it, and make a ruckus about it. If that link, and the information Rather gave in his suit is correct, then it seems it was his own boss doing this. Do you guys have any independent media there at all?
Hell, even our own state sponsored tv station skewers politicians from the entire spectrum, more than your "independent" ones do.
Seriously! No rational person could possibly think a panel drawn from this list would research and report the matter according to the standards of honestly conscientious journalism.
CBS -- Fair and balanced?
was a GOP forgery. Dan Rather took the bait.
The documents were vetted by the Whitehouse.
That’s the perfect contestant list for a new game show I’ve been thinking about creating. I may call it “The Daze of your Lies” or “This is your lie”. The idea is to strap a contestant in an electric chair and connect a lie detector, ask a question and when they lie give them a shock. I’d pay to see a show like that!
Viacom, that is...
By what stretch of credulity and logic could Eliot Abrams be named to such a panel?
And where's Oliver North? He's got as much credibvility as a journo as Drudge or Slimebaugh...
Jeses, these people weren't even TRYING to get a kangaroo court...
Let it all come to light and be exposed.
I couldn't fathom why he'd want to relive such an obviously embarrassing moment in his career, unless he'd found out something really incriminating about how CBS handled this.
Looks like he has.
Maybe that fucking Nazi in the Vatican could substitute for the Big T?
No Michelle Malkin? I guarantee she is writing an angry, shrill post about it right this second...
Please let this go to trial.
What, no Michael "Weiner" Savage.
It will be most interesting to listen to the testimony of William F. Buckley, considering that he has been quite dead for awhile. He would make an exhilarating member of the independent panel.
cbs news is such a piece of shit i'm surprised 60 minutes isn't complete overrun with sycophantic right wing lunatics already..right now the only one is leslie stahl
What an anti-American Neocon he turned out to be.
Don't let them get away with that shit.
It's Payback time.
beating Rather asking, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"
Here's a link with more information for interested readers:
http://harpers.org/archive/2001/12/0075777
It's a public service of the highest order to publish the names of almost all of those who SHOULD BE IN JAIL.
While they're at it, where's Malkin's name?
Half of those people are all card carrying club members of the Project for A New American Century. Or work at the American Enterprise Institute.
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