Who Has the Burden?
Reported by Eleanor - September 15, 2004 -
Special Report with Brit Hume (Sept. 15, 7:00 p.m.) spent about 30 minutes on the CBS document story - not the content, but the documents.
Jim Angle reported on the fact that CBS hasn't issued a statement yet. Two experts used by CBS expressed concerns about the documents; and members of Congress are asking CBS to retract the documents.
The question was posed: Will stars of CBS news go down with the ship or break ranks on the National Guard documents? CBS Bob Schieffer said he hopes they're real. They must find a way to determine if they're forgeries. Rather is convinced - it's out of the question - this is not a set-up.
These are key points in summary form from the two panel sessions on the memos: Hume: Emily Will, CBS expert, had questions about the documents. She warned CBS of trouble. CBS has given no statement. It's standing by the story.
The conversation lasted twenty minutes, but basically, the panel said that CBS has been "had." Hume: Is it the burden of CBS to authenticate, or of critics to disprove? The woman who was a secretary to Killian says she thinks they're fake, but the sentiments are real. Williams: There are two stories here. Ben Barnes said he got Bush into the Guard. Hume: He's a major fund raiser for Kerry. Williams: Credibility is the issue. (He mentioned the swift boat group as supporters of Bush) Williams: Bush didn't say why he didn't take the physical. Hume: He couldn't fly that kind of plane, so he didn't take the physical. Kondracke: They are diverting attention from the documents to whether Bush showed up for duty. Williams: We are not paying attention to the larger issue. Kondracke: We are not paying attention to Iraq as the larger issue in this campaign.
Comment: Rather is expected to make some sort of statement on 60 minutes tonight as the media continues to cloud the issue of the document versus Bush's "sugar coated" deal in the National Guard, forcing CBS to reveal more than they would like about these documents. So the distraction continues.
