The CBS Scandal and The Truth

Thursday, January 13, 2005

The scandal at CBS over the authentication of documents in connection with President Bush's service record in the National guard raises issues of "truth telling", beyond who did and didn't do the proper vetting of the story. There is no question that the reputations of Dan Rather, his producing staff, and CBS have suffered from this "expose". And the case should alert not only the rest of the media but everyone in public life about how or how not to convey the "whole truth and nothing but the truth".

There are other media personalities who pass themselves off as commentators on current events, but who have a difficult time with the truth and are, at the same time, politically biased. No, they don't have the same status as network TV news, but they send a message to the listeners which is not just another point of view. I offer Rush Limbaugh and "The O'Reilley Factor".

And then there is the subject of the CBS tragedy: President Bush. The panel whose report has elevated this to front page news never could ascertain whether the document was authentic or not or whether or not CBS and Dan Rather showed political bias. In all of the carrying on about CBS' transgression, the issue of Bush's service record still stands in question. It does enter the mind of the observer when the dots are connected that there seems to be some relationship between the lack of resolution of this issue and the muddying of CBS' news' reputation. Did the Bushees have a hand in it? And is this a warning to other media to restrain cricitism of his administration with the threat that the same intensity of inspection about news sources will be aimed at them?

More on Bush and the truth. Bush refuses to deal with the horrible facts of the Iraqi War, thus, to change tactics and timetables. Bush has raised social security to a national crisis when, in fact, the system will run out of money in 2042 and not earlier as he says in public. Instead of trying to convince the public that partial privatization will be the solution, with the trillion dollar cost not mentioned, why not just go ahead a pay back the loans the government has taken from the Social Security fund? Might not this be a cheaper approach? Did Bush really tell the whole truth about the costs and coverage of the senior citizen drug benefit? It seems not and the aging public is now paying more for medicare and, for some people, reducing the actual cash outlays for daily living expenses, including closing the gap between what Medicare will pay and actual soaring drug costs.

Without diminishing the seriousness of CBS's dysfunction, who has has the greater duty to tell the truth? I think it's the federal government and the President, who serve at the behest of the public that elected them. Not everyone listens to CBS news, but everyone is affected by what the Administration and President Bush say or don't say that should be the "the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth".

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