Did you really expect the result to be any difference?

*shrugs* I'm over it - Dan Rather is a liar. MSM will get what's coming to them - just on a different time-table than I'd prefer.

I remember when the former President of AP signed on to do the investigation one of his requirements was that the report be publicly available or he wouldn't do it.

Guess that didn't pan out.

Those people are worthless. Not just Dan Rather - the whole frickin' edifice. If they can't report "the truth" when it hurts, they can't be trusted at all.

Okay, just hypothetically speaking: in what situation would a sleazy cover-up be BETTER for CBS than a full disclosure? Unless the report reveals that Viacom's Board of Directors was implicated in the UN Oil-for-Food scandal, or something equally appalling, I can't see how concealing the report could work to the network's advantage. I mean, we already know the principals: Mapes, Rather, Burkett, possibly Heyward. If CBS releases some kind of redacted or abridged report, it's only going to rekindle the embers.

Then again, re-reading what I just typed, I sound about as smug and certain as the average batshit Democratic Underground poster. So take it with a grain of salt.

Just sent this to the contact site at cBS.
"Many higher-ups" don't want to release the RatherGate report to the public in its "entirety".

Does this mean that cBS won't be releasing the report?

I shall keep this in mind the next time you sanctimonious main-stream media people scold people in our government, military, or the corporate world for self-serving, cover-your-behind, protect-your-own dishonesty.

This is a terrible decision. You lost almost all credibility with me because of RatherGate. I had hoped that the report would lead to your getting back a little of this trust.

This just makes me think cBS management really is dishonest.

I'm not terribly surprised by CBS' decision. The media has never thought it had to play by the same rules as everyone else. Why should they start now?

I think there's a high probability the report will be leaked by someone dissatisfied with the secrecy or bitter toward "the higher-ups." Does anyone have a sense for this one way or the other?

So the God Emperor's Great Granny is here. Nice. The numbnuts at CBS coulda used a Kwisatch Haderach a few months ago to clue 'em in.

Drudge is gonna get the report come hell or high water. This is what he lives for.

And then Rather's head on a Pike. Muhahahahaha!

Agree with Helen. This was a forgery intended to influence a Presidential election. If no one is fired or disciplined, Dick Thornburg's name would be dirt in Republican circles if he doesn't disclose the conclusions of the report.

If no one is fired, the report buried, Sumner Redstone will find Viacom under the Ruling Party's and the Blogosphere's laser stare.

If someone is fired, that too increases the chances of a leaker.

Every time CBS has a news show they move the boundaries of ethics farther out.

Not releasing the Rathergate report moves the ethics boundary out to Jupiter.

CBS had no credibility. CBS has no credibility. CBS will have no credibility. They made their choice. Now we the viewers make ours.

-Guy T.

Well, hypothetically, a cover-up would be better than disclosing that CBS/Mapes/Rather not only put Burkett in contact with the Kerry campaign, but in fact gave the Democrats notice in advance of the story. Or, conversely that the Democrats put CBS in contact with Burkett. That would be worse for the network then a sleazy cover-up.

I am not saying that is the case. Personally I suspect they don't want to show how easy it was for a producer with an obvious political vendetta to put a half-assed forgery on the air because everyone wanted to believe it was true so badly they didn't bother to subject it to even a cursory authentication.

It would be a little awkward for them to show the world how shoddy "journalism" really is these days after spending frigging months telling the world how irresponsible and sloppy and biased bloggers are.

cBS sounds confident in its ability to cover up Rathergate.
Could this be b/c they're confident that the FEC will grant them revenge against the blogosphere with new restrictions on political speech ?

Days, weeks, months - it matters not. CBS “news” is through. Senior officers of the corporate entities know as CBS and Viacom promised their viewing public, their critics, their employees and the American people an “independent” investigation and they lied. They (Sumner Redstone, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom; Les Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Television; and Andrew Heyward, President of CBS News) lied to us all as surly as Dan Rather and Mary Mapes did. They are unrepentant and wholly deserving of our scorn. They have disgraced the profession of journalism, they have disgraced their corporate families and they have disgraced all Americans who believe that journalists should seek and speak the truth regardless of their personal biases or their corporate bottom lines. I am ashamed to call these men and women fellow citizens.

tick,tick,tick,tick,tick,tick...

Tonight on '60 Minutes'

Mike Wallace: Why haven't you released the full report on the 'Rathergate' matter and will you?

Andrew Heyward: no response just has that deer-in-headlights look.

The msm in general and cBS and the nyt in particular, are the most dishonest, hypocritical institutions in American puloc life today. But we already know that.

My only comfort in this is that the longer cBS takes to release the report, the worse it must be - for cBS, and for the democrats. If the inital story of Burkett as the 'creator' of the memos was true and that was the 'whole truth', with cBS as the dupe, then the report would have been issued the day after the election if not before.

However since it is taking cBS forever to release the report, we at this juncture we can enjoy speculating about the reasons for the delay - Mapes, raTHer and McAualiffe as the 'co-creators', Heyward having a private meeting with kerry about the story the night before, raTHer's daughter as the 'creator' with input from her father, other 'created' memos still in cBS's possesion which it decided not to air once the first batch blew up in their face, etc. Other suggestions welcome.

Great post btw Ace.

max

The report may be so damning that CBS would prefer to accept the damage wrought by a coverup.

Mapes and Rather made far more 'mistakes' in their pursuit of the story than can be explained by mere incompetence. Possibly they were driven mad and blind by political prejudice. But then, termination would go a long way toward rectification.

What if the report concludes that they knowingly, maliciously concocted a fraud? While it is unlikely that President Bush would sue, such a report could provide evidence of a pattern for future lawsuits against CBS. Plaintiffs would line up like the armies of ex-altar boys versus the Catholic Church.

I suspect that the report's conclusions will be heavily laundered before release, and that the rest of the MSM will eagerly collude in the whitewash.

I think Alex has hit the mark.

It becomes less damaging to cover-up the report when and if the report determines collusion and coordination with the Democratic Party.

It's one thing for Rather and Mapes to fall on their swords for incompetence, quite another for CBS to be revealed as co-conspirator with the Kerry camp in a political smear job.