The CBS Three Won't Slink Off

[CHIMO]

Five weeks after CBS blamed them for botching an expose into President Bush's questionable service in the Texas Air National Guard, three staffers who were asked to resign are refusing to quit.
They are: Josh Howard, executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday"; senior broadcast producer Mary Murphy, and senior vice president Betsy West. The New York Observer is reporting that Howard has hired a lawyer and wants CBS executive Leslie Moonves to retract comments he made following the release of an exhaustive investigation into how the report got on the air. All three staffers remain on the CBS payroll. CBS refused to comment after the Observer broke the story. Along with CBS producer Mary Mapes, the three were blamed for what an independent panel convened by the network called their "myopic zeal" to nail Bush. We're joined now by Joe Hagan, the reporter who broke this story in The New York Observer. The piece is called "The CBS Three Won't Slink Off; Hiring Lawyers."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/17/1530248

[tridim]

1. Sweet!

I'm not apologizing for CBS, but they did get the shaft for that story. It was a real story regardless of the memo source.

[Emboldened Chimp]

2. This could get real good...

...perhaps by suing, they (and we) will find out if they were indeed set up by someone inside the White House.

[sadiesworld]

8. Exactamente!

You KNOW this goes back to Rove. Why aren't the hate radio mongers screaming for more investigation? For Burkett's head? Sure, they still like to bitch about Rather but where are the QUESTIONS?!

[Cha]

3. And what about "the myopic zeal" to nail

Clinton on Whitewater?

[cally]

4. Thank you for standing up for our country!

Howard, Murphy, and West are heroes.

[Just Me]

5. They are far more deserving of an outstanding defense than the RW-

lie-making-machine!!!

I hope they complete their own exhaustive investigation that reveals everything underlying the freakin' witch-hunt that was waged against them!!!

[Psephos]

6. This will travel up the food chain rapidly

These guys were hung out to dry. Josh Howard is one of the best in the biz, beyond reproach.

Moonves is going to look bad once we hear the rest of the story.

[roguevalley]

7. excellent!

[centristo]

9. sorry

I believe the story was valid, but you simply have to have legitimate sources, especially when accusing the POTUS of such serious crimes. There is no excuse for what happened. The document was easily debunked in less than a week from airing. If anything, they all should be fired for shoddy journalism. Why they were merely "asked to resign" is another matter.

If any of you were "asked to resign" from your jobs would you do it? Why didn't the CBS brass just fire them?

[punpirate]

10. Just one problem...

... with that. No authoritative source has yet to prove the inauthenticity of the documents. Each of the handwriting and typeface experts the CBS people used to authenticate them said that they appeared genuine, but could not absolutely confirm that because they were dealing with photocopies.

As for being asked to resign, it's a standard method in most companies and has been for many years. Getting someone to resign prevents having to fire them and then risking a wrongful dismissal suit.

Cheers.

[CHIMO]

12. In Addition

What I gathered from the interview is that if they resign then they can not say what happened. They could be sued.
Thus there only recourse is to have the company give them a pink slip. At such time they could come forward with the information.

It looks like the request to resign is an attempt to shut them up.

[wryter2000]

11. They should resign...

...just as soon as the people who relied on the forged yellow cake uranium documents resign. And not a moment earlier.