Reply #59: Guess what story was bumped for National Guard story. [View All]

[janet118]

Scheduled for Sept. 8, 2004: The trail of the forged documents about "yellow cake" uranium with Ed Bradley. It was replaced with Dan Rather's National Guard story and never aired because supposedly CBS was freaked out by the blowback about sketchy documents in the Rather story. Hmm-m-m-m . . .

CBS Owes Ed Bradley an Apology

But CBS still owes Bradley a belated apology stemming from its shameful decision during the 2004 presidential campaign to pointedly refuse to run a factually solid story of his that chronicled how the Bush administration had misled the country into war. Specifically, the Bradley story detailed the murky circumstances surrounding bogus Nigerien documents unearthed in 2002 -- the alleged smoking gun -- that purported to prove that Saddam Hussein had purchased 500 tons of so-called yellowcake uranium to build a nuclear bomb. The documents turned out to be obvious fakes, but that didn't stop the Bush administration from eagerly using them in an effort to scare Americans with doomsday talk.

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Yet to this day, CBS has not apologized for its timorous Niger surrender, which smeared Bradley's good name and hard work -- after the National Guard story erupted, Heyward told Bradley his Niger report wasn't good enough to broadcast, despite the fact it had already been slotted to run. (Ironically, Bradley's Niger investigation was set to air September 8, 2004, but got bumped by the National Guard scoop.)

Here's my take on Dan Rather: Rather made a deal with CBS to remain silent. Why? If you deal with snakes you get bit. The joke was on him. He was looking out for his cushy job and lost it anyway. I don't think Mr. Rather is a man of either courage or integrity. He has always struck me as someone who generally played along but tried to push his way to the front whenever he sensed the winds of change were about to blow. He kissed up to the Bush administration after 9-11 and misjudged the timing and wind direction on his leap for the bandwagon in 2004.