Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Rather’s Lawsuit Reveals Embarrassing Fact About CBS: CBS Was Fair in Picking
Panelists for Its Outside Investigation of Rather.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_11_16-2008_11_22.shtml#1226970662
The New York Times has a [1]story on Dan Rather�s lawsuit against CBS
with the shocking revelation that the names of some of potential
outside investigators were vetted with Republicans, in an (apparently
scandalous) attempt to both be fair and to be seen as being fair. If
Rather�s CBS group treated Republicans unfairly in its story, and if
CBS wanted Republicans to think that their outside investigation
fairly examined their complaints, then it would have been
irresponsible for CBS NOT to have picked at least one committee member
who would be seen by Republicans as ensuring a fair investigation of
their complaint.
In other words, in its investigation of Rather�s fraudulent report,
CBS did not want to repeat the error that led to Rather�s mistake �
relying on an ideologically monolithic, left-leaning investigative
team. This is the sort of ideological diversity that the press needs a
lot more of.
I read the CBS outside report when it came out. I thought they bent
over backwards to be fair and generous to the Rather team.
The only actually even marginally embarrassing revelation in today�s
New York Times story is [2]this one sentence:
Other documents, meanwhile, suggest that Ms. Mason, who reported to
Mr. Heyward, was getting updates from panel investigators on some
of their findings, at a point when CBS News was telling outsiders
that the network was staying out of the investigation.
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/media/17rather.html
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/media/17rather.html
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