Reply #136: I was a reporter for my college paper (14,000) daily circulation.

[mistertrickster]

We would have never gone with the memo story. Why?

1. The original memos were destroyed by the source. CBS had faxes of copies. That's crap, total crap. Faxes of copies can't be verified and are totally bogus.

2. The source said he got the memos from a high ranking official in the TANG. That was a lie. CBS never checked with the "high ranking official" to see if he ever actually had the documents in question.

Of course, I think GW shirked his duty, went AWOL, swiftboated CBS, is the worst-president-ever, lies sooner than breathes, etc. etc.

But that doesn't absolve CBS of running with a story that they couldn't verify. This is Journalism 101 stuff here, folks. If journalists don't maintain the standards that they themselves set, how can we believe anything they report?

CBS blew it, and they got justifiably nailed.