My feeling is that we have to be hard on Rather and CBS. It doesn't matter if there was any truth to the story they used false documents to peddle it to the general public. That means they didn't do their job and bullshitted us and I have to say that Kevin is correct in this case...the big question that hangs in the air is WHY?

I have to think that they put that story on the air knowing those documents were fake...at least some people at CBS knew they were fake I would say...and Rather may have been one of them. So, it's awful to have to say it but I think they did it just to "get the president"...and over what? Some crap that happened 30 years ago we all knew about anyway but doesn't really mean a damn to us now.

I mean did they think that crap would sway voters? Those on the left already have made up their minds about Bush. Those on the right have too. So were they going after swing voters? I doubt they care about the whole thing. Plus, if this story mattered at all, they killed it by using false documents to sell it to us. I think the only good thing is the story didn't matter. Just like the SBV thing didn't matter because it was all lies. I think this story got on tv because of the SBV lies and that people feel one good lie deserves another.

I don't think there is any excuse for what CBS did and they left us with a situation where because they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, now they can't be trusted. Plus it will cause people to take a second look at everything they do and everything they've done in the past. Why they decided to flush their reputation down the drain is beyond me. I don't think they were not careful about researching the documents. CBS has been at it too long and is too good to believe they dropped the ball on the research. Somebody there lied.

I think the likely scenario is that a small group of people (possibly including Rather) knew they had fake documents on their hands but found that the info in them was solid. They then rolled the dice thinking they wouldn't get caught and passed off the documents as genuine to others at CBS so they could get the story to air. Obviously they had an agenda. That flushing sound you hear is the CBS reputation going down the hopper. Hey, Fox has flushed their rep as well. Now since all these networks tend to copy eachother it seems ABC and NBC should quickly follow suit.

Hoooooooooooooorray for love!