See-BS finally owns up

Well, that took long enough.

It's all over except for the shouting and the inevitable link to the Demoscum.  CBS has finally admitted that the heart of its hatchet job on President Bush - the documents questioning his service in the National Guard - is (are) bogus.

Here's the Dan Blather statement.  Along with my translation, of course. (grin)

Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question—and their source—vigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.

"Damn the Blogosphere™!!!!  They forced us to do this!  If it hadn't been for them, we'd've gotten away with this and ruined Shrub's campaign!!!  Damn!!!!!"

Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers.

"Damn Microsoft Word!!!  Damn Bill Gates!!!!!"

That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press

"DAMN THAT F'N BLOGOSPHERE!!!!!"

leads me to a point where—if I knew then what I know now—I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.

"Had I realized that bulls**t would've been called on me so fast it made my head spin like a ol' West Texas tornado, I'd've gotten René Syler to report this.  No one would've missed her."

But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry

"We tried to put yet another one past the simpleton American public, and I'm only sorry my ass got caught."

It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.

"We still hate Bush.  We'll just have to make sure we tell slicker lies next time.  Damn Bill Clinton's heart problem!  He  could've helped us with this!!!!"

Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully.

"Please know that we're still hard at work lying through our teeth and trying to pull the wool over your eyes."

Some things never change. (sigh)