When Is CBS Going To Start Cutting Its Losses?

First they air the bogus Texas Air National Guard smear against President Bush. Then, when the blogosphere nails them cold for using fabricated documents, the lie, spin, and stonewall. After the story completely disintegrates to such an extent that their Big Media fellows start picking over its carcass, they concede by still insist that the story itself is "essentially true." Then they commission an internal investigation that they claim is "independent," which produces what is widely seen as a whitewash that heaves some small fry overboard and protects the major players, like Dan Rather and Anthony Heyward and Les Moonves.

Now the small fry are pushing back.

The three CBS news executives asked to resign for their alleged part in the Rathergate scandal are digging in their heels and refusing to go; all have ‘lawyered up,’ and is one is threatening to sue the network.

In a blockbuster story in the New York Observer, TV reporter Joe Hagan reveals that Josh Howard and two other CBS News executives, Betsy West and Mary Murphy, are refusing to resign, insisting that they were made into scapegoats by an "independent" commission they allege was designed to protect the corporate CBS brass from damage.

Hagan writes that CBS president Leslie Moonves issued a statement on January 10th in the wake of the arrival of the 224-page report on the investigation into CBS News’ 60 Minutes Wednesday assembled by an outside team of former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press head Louis Boccardi Jr. His statement dwelt on the failures of the employees involved in producing the disputed segment.

Prominent among his targets was executive producer Josh Howard who, Moonves charged, "did little to assert his role as the producer ultimately responsible for the broadcast and everything in it. This mistake dealt a tremendous blow to the credibility of 60 Minutes Wednesday and to CBS News in general." He added that he producer had been asked to resign, and the network was "taking a variety of actions to put this crisis behind us."

Writes Hagan "Five weeks later, the crisis is not yet behind Mr. Moonves. And far from resolving the problem of the network’s credibility, the independent report commissioned by CBS appears instead to be leading to a confrontation, with defenders of both the ousted CBS staffers involved in the debacle and top CBS management asserting two different truths from the same document.”

Howard is having none of it, according to Hagan. Nor are his two colleagues.

"Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers — his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West — haven’t resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network retract Mr. Moonves’ remarks, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name."

I'm just full of old sayings. Here's another one: "When a fish rots, the rot starts at the head." Howard, Murphy, and West are, understandably, indignant at being the designated fall people for no other purpose than to cover the asses of the higher-ups above them. What's in it for them? Why should they take the rap as though the fake documents caper was solely their idea and "Our Man Dan" had nothing to do with it? Hell, CBS isn't even offering them generous payoffs (i.e. "hush money") to go "gentle into that good night," and it doesn't look as though Mr. Howard could be bought off in any case.

If the "buck" stops at the top, why shouldn't Moonves, Heyward, and Gunga-Dan at least be quitting along with the designated "Gang of Three"? That's the question the latter is asking, and it's hard to argue with it.

That's something that CBS brass should have thought of before turning on their underlings and trying to throw them under the proverbial train.

Now look at the hornet's nest they've stirred up:

The threat is ominous. According to radio host Laura Ingraham, Howard will seek copies of the e-mails related to Rathergate that passed between CBS executives. She added that the e-mails are said to be explosive and if revealed could badly damage the already crippled network.

Wrote Hagan: "Mr. Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he would subpoena specific CBS documents, including the e-mails of top executives. That might shed further light on what members of management were saying to each other … after the segment aired.”

Hagan says that CBS held Howard responsible, but ignored him when he asked management about the veracity of the Bush guard doc piece.

Hagan notes that on page 162, "the report says that it was Mr. Howard who made the first concerted effort to address the possibility that the segment had been in error.”
Howard e-mailed West suggesting CBS News consider the possibility that it had been duped and that the documents could be a hoax.

West ignored the e-mail, putting the onus on Andrew Heyward, who ceded responsibility to the network’s public-relations man, Mr. Schwartz, who works for Les Moonves.

West, Heyward and Schwatz "continued to defend the documents," according to Hagan. Moreover, Hagan reports Howard believes that the report contradicts Moonves’ statement about Howard’s share of the blame.

Mr. Howard also believes, those sources told Hagan, that the report itself excludes evidence that would implicate top management at CBS and restore Mr. Howard’s reputation in the television news business.

CBS News is no longer the "Sauronic Eye," or even the "black Eye." "Rather," that eye is now gouging itself out of its socket and is hanging by its sputtering optic nerve.

And it's all because of an unrelenting litany of dishonesty and moral cowardice, as summarized in my opening paragraph above. At no time did it apparently ever occur to the CBS Powers That Be to stop spinning, stop lying, to everybody else and to themselves, and give candor a chance. If they had, somebody might have realized that the whole TANG "story" was nothing but malicious bias run amok and spiked it before it could make it onto the airwaves. Instead, the hard-left culture at Blackrock prevailed, and it is now turning inward to consume its own.

Should be a blast to watch.

In fact, if CBS' entertainment division is smart, they'll put the proceedings on pay-per-view.

Hell, I'd buy it.