Rathergate Update CBS ignored Experts

CBS ignored it's own witnesses

From Captains Quarters via Kerry Spot

NO MORE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. CBS KNEW THE DOCUMENTS WERE SHAKY. [09/14 09:03 PM]

Blogger Captain Ed points out a previously-unthinkable conclusion that now appears obvious.

ABC Evening News continues to chase down its competitor, CBS, on the Killian forgeries. Tonight, they broadcast an expose that alleges that CBS ignored the advice of several document experts who tried to warn them that the Killian memos were faked:

ABC's Brian Ross interviewed the two experts who CBS hired to validate the National Guard documents and reports they ignored concerns they raised prior to the CBS News broadcast. "I did not feel that they wanted to investigate it very deeply," Emily Will told Ross. "I did not authenticate anything and I don't want it to be misunderstood that I did," Linda James told Ross. Ross reports 2 experts told ABC News today that even the most advanced typewriter available in 1972 could not have produced the documents.

Up to now, we assumed that CBS ran with the forgeries not out of malice as much as avarice and ignorance. Now that view may turn out to have been too charitable. Far from failing to properly vet the documents, CBS knowingly moved forward with these forgeries, only stopping long enough to shop for a couple of supporting opinions from people who turned out to be unqualified to authenticate them.

Time for the blogosphere's legal minds to weigh in. Does this meet the legal standard of actual malice, a legal term which means the defendant knew his statement was false, or reckless disregard for the truth?

Either way, the "we were duped" argument is now disintegrating as we speak, er, read, er, in my case, type.

NRO is demanding that CBS not be allowed to moderate any of the debates as a result of their attempting to influence this election and I agree! There is no way the Republicans should accept a CBS reporter as the moderator of any of the debates.
DKK