- Hey, by the new CBS system of journalistic standards, circa 2004:

- "We just report the rumors and heresay...We're certainly can't be expected to validate it...

Don't forget this lawyer, Van Os.

Read some of his quotes like "if Bill Burkett of someone else" referring to cooked up docs. He alsways says someone else.

Remember this guy is a REAL activist Dem.

Coincidentally, he ahs a pic of himself with James Carville on his campaign website. Hmm! james Carville - that epitomy of campaign integrity. Here's the link to the pic on Van Os's website. Scroll about 2/3s dpown the page - on the left.

http://www.vanosforsupremecourt.com/dvo_photo_album_campaign.htm

You'll also see lots of pics of this guy at Kerry rallies.

Burkett's lawyer, Van Os, must charge a pretty penny for his services. What are the odds that Burkett could afford a high powered guy like Van Os? I mean, we have a guy who supposedly couldn't afford medical bills when he got sick in Panama.

If Van Os, a clear Dem operative, is representing Burkett for free, wouldn't that constitute some sort of official financial support for Burkett from the Dem party? I wonder how much Burkett has been used by the Dem party.

Van Os was called up to Florida by the DNC in Nov 2000. He was on the tiger team that was assembled to suppress military absentee ballots around the state.

Ethics of sources 101

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec04/cbs_9-16.html

TERENCE SMITH: Susan Tifft, what do you think on the sources issue? If indeed the documents are demonstrated not to be genuine, if indeed CBS therefore concludes it has been duped by someone, by its source, what do they do about that?

SUSAN TIFFT: I think the bottom line is that you... your first obligation is to, in this case, your viewer. I agree with Ken, that you don't just give up a confidential source.That's really a sacred thing in journalism.

But I think if CBS finds that the source knowingly misled CBS, I think that the contract between the source and journalist ends there. And they owe it to their viewers to reveal who that source is. And as far as, you know, what kinds of investigations they should do now into themselves, there are lots of different models; as Ken said, there's the internal investigation, outside panels.

That's why i think rather was, to some extent, involved in the actual forgery. He might think of it as a "journalistic recreation," but that only works if you disclose that it isn't the real thing. It's forgery if you pass it off as the real thing.

Your mission, should u decide to accept it, is to post one item that DOESN'T have to with you-know-who

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go read another blog.

It's all Rathergate, all the time until I decide differently. No one forces you to read.

So, just how many stories have CBS run during this campaign, or even during the last 4 years that rely on information provided by Bill Burkett?

If this is only the story that got caught, how many fraudulent stories has CBS pawned off on us?

Is this just one example of a pattern of disinformation coming out of CBS?

Huh. This reminds me of how mad so many of us lefties were when it came out that much of Judith Miller's reporting in the New York Times on Iraqi WMD came from Chalabi.

Perhaps part of the problem is the degree to which journalists rely on anonymous sources. Readers don't know where the information is coming from, so they have to trust the reporter's judgement that their source is reliable.

--Rick Taylor

A 'John' (missed his last name) who was speaking on behalf of KIRO TV 7 in Seattle as a guest basically said "Oh, we'd protect the source to the end. Yes, even if it is a forgery. I mean, outing them doesn't help anything and just generates a world of hurt for the source."

Which is very irritating.

FINE. I'll go read Katrina vanden Heuval

As we gain some distance and perspective, I suppose the thing we all have to ask ourselves - "What else are the networks like CBS lying to us about?" Iraq? The economy?

The NY Times has even more information on Burkett:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/18/politics/campaign/18guard.html

"I spent some time on the phone with the Kerry campaign seniors yesterday," Mr. Burkett wrote on Aug. 21 in an e-mail letter circulated to a list of about 600 Texas Democrats.

He complained that he had to "get through seven layers of bureaucratic kids trying to get a job after the election."

"I talked with Max Cleland," Mr. Burkett continued, referring to the former senator from Georgia who has been supporting Senator John Kerry's Democratic presidential bid.

Alluding to advertisements by a veterans group that deprecates Mr. Kerry's Vietnam service, Mr. Burkett continued, "I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. He said counterattack."

"So I gave them the information to do it with," Mr. Burkett wrote. "But none of them have called me back."

Mr. Burkett did not say what information he offered. Earlier this year, he gained attention for saying that in 1998 he saw aides to Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Guard officials dispose of pieces of Mr. Bush's National Guard record that could prove politically embarrassing. Mr. Bush's aides have denied his account.

"I volunteered to come back out with more," Mr. Burkett wrote.