After Firing Four News Executives, CBS Wants to Move On From Its Rathergate Scandal. It Cannot, and It has Only Itself to Blame

Philip Stone January 13, 2005

The 224-page independent report was scathing, as expected. The story CBS News reported about President Bush and his time in the Air National Guard has already claimed the semi-retirement of star anchor Dan Rather in March but no further reprisal. Rather denies there is a connection. And there is no discipline whatsoever against CBS News President Andrew Heyward.
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Senior management already knew basically what happened, where their system failed, so within a week of receiving the report the network was ready to publish it publicly and announce its firings. But instead of fixing the problem, the network embarked on a damage limitation exercise, and that in turn leaves CBS News an even weaker organization

How can its own journalists ask senior government officials if they should resign when things go seriously wrong if their own news organization does not lead by example? To their credit, when the New York Times and USA Today had their own editorial scandals last year, part of the internal healing process was the removal of the senior editorial manager. CBS chose not to follow those examples.

It was CBS news that broke the first pictures of the abuses going on inside the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The media continually pressured the Pentagon and Congress to ensure that not only the people who committed the foul deeds should be punished, but also their superiors up the chain of command and who knows where it might stop – there were those asking for the defense secretary’s resignation. Yet with its own scandal CBS fired those closest to the story, but let the senior officials off the hook. That leaves the CBS reporter on rather thin ice come the next government scandal.

First, to those who were not fired:

CBS news anchor Dan Rather

CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather to step down in March

He took a preemptive step in November and agreed with CBS President Les Moonves that he would quit the anchor’s chair in March. Before the scandal, there was a question whether Rather, 72, would ever step down, and there was no likely successor standing by. Moonves and Rather both insisted in November there was no connection between the scandal and Rather’s decision to retire as anchor; yet in announcing the investigation results Moonves said there would be no further action against Rather, giving a hint that there might have been a deal for an honorable withdrawal after all.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward

 

Andy Heyward

 

 

It’s not as though he was an innocent idle bystander to all this. He had rightly urged the team preparing the story to check everything out with great caution and he warned them they would have to be able to defend everything reported. He also attended, unusually, a screening of the story the night before it went on air and he must have been satisfied – he took no steps to stop it going to air. “It happened under his watch,” Moonves said, “But I felt he did his job. He asked the questions that needed to be asked.”

Heyward let the story air because he believed what those who worked for him told him. They were wrong, but does not the buck stop at his desk? There may well be a business decision that with Rather leaving in March there is a need for some continuity and this is not the time to change news presidents. Viewers, advertisers and the media will probably make clear it was the wrong decision.

So, who did get fired?

Mary Mapes, the producer directly responsible for the piece who came up with the documents which later could not be authenticated (she was also, incidentally, responsible for breaking the Abu Ghraib story and her stature was such that few would argue with her if she said documents were genuine).

Asked to resign were:

Josh Howard who just weeks before the report aired became executive director of the 60 Minutes Wednesday program in which the report appeared, and his deputy, Mary Murphy. Both were criticized in the report for not questioning Mapes hard enough -- not withstanding her reputation and standing in CBS News -- on the authenticity of the documents.

Also asked to fall on her sword was Betsy West,

 

Betsy West

 

a 29-year network television veteran, senior vice president of news and the top deputy to Heyward. Her crime (if not the sacrificial lamb for her boss): as senior vice president she is ultimately responsible for CBS news programs that appear in prime time. But the report also said that two days after the broadcast with Hell breaking lose, Heyward asked her to thoroughly review those sources that had supported the documentation. No such review allegedly occurred. If such a review had taken place quickly CBS might have realized sooner that the documents could not be authenticated and would have given up the ghost that much sooner instead of holding out for 12 days.

The report panel, headed by Dick Thornburgh, former US Attorney General, and Lou Boccardi, former head of the Associated Press, detailed how CBS News came to report falsely in September, with the Presidential election basically dead even, that President Bush had used family connections to join the Texas Air National Guard as a way of avoiding the other military services which might have sent him to Vietnam. The report also claimed that President Bush had failed to fulfill several obligations while in the National Guard.

The report was based on documents produced by Mapes from a source later discovered to be unreliable. As soon as the report aired, Internet bloggers  questioned the authenticity of the documents cited. After 12 days of saying it had a good story CBS admitted it had a bad story and Rather apologized on air.

But viewers who place their trust in anchors were not quickly forgiving and Rather’s daily newscast, which had been last in the ratings between the three networks, fell even more. There was one day in New York when his news program was the least watched on any terrestrial station in its time period, being beaten even by the cartoon shows.

Informal surveys since the incident and since the report was issued indicate CBS is still going to be in for a rough time. Instead of people “forgetting” or becoming more “forgiving” there seems to be more questioning  that if CBS made a mistake on this story then what other stories did it get wrong?  CBS must also worry that advertisers do not like to be associated with tainted products.

And then there is Dan Rather – an institution who really did not deserve this in the twilight of his anchor career.  One survey showed that whereas after the scandal broke a large proportion of respondents felt he should not lose the anchor’s job, today that support is said to have waned. The report indicated that Rather had very little role in the preparation of the report -- he had been busy on other news events – but if there was ever a lesson even a 72-year-old news veteran can learn it is that when your name goes on a piece it is yours.

His crime was to trust those with whom he had worked many times in the past, but the system failed him. As Moonves said, “His biggest sin was to trust a producer whom he had worked very successfully with in the past.”

CBS has appointed Linda Mason, a senior distinguished award-winning executive to the new position of senior vice president of standards and special projects Her basic job is to make sure authenticity is confirmed before an item goes to air, not after.

The unkindest shot came from CBS’ own late-night entertainer, David Letterman. His top 10 list of CBS News changes to now be implemented had this as number one: “Use beer, cash and hookers to lure Tom Brocaw out of retirement.”

Ouch!

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Andrew Heyward Is Out As CBS News President –October 27, 2005

It has taken a few more months of agony at CBS News with its evening newscast without Dan Rather still firmly in last place, but finally Andrew Heyward has fallen on his sword and has announced he is leaving the company at the end of the year when his contract expires. He will be replaced Nov.7 by Sean McManus who will also retain his presidency of CBS Sports.

Heyward has been working for the past few months on trying to come up with a “different” format that completely changes the face of the CBS Evening News but thus far nothing has shown.

In the meantime it had been widely reported that CBS chairman Les Moonves had become considerably disenchanted over the past months with Heyward, but there had also been reports that Heyward’s job would go to the president of the entertainment division, which would have been a serious blow to the news division.

There has been one previous occasion when a network sports president took over the news division – Roone Arledge in the 1970s at ABC and he is widely credited with transforming ABC News into a news powerhouse.

For Heyward it is a sad ending to this part of his long distinguished career. The Thornburgh-Boccardi report said that he had questioned and warned his producers of the President Bush National Guard story on the need for complete accuracy but he was let down. But he was the captain of the ship and when the network later let go several producers but the captain himself did not go down with the ship there was a feeling that CBS News would not recover fully until the retribution was complete. Somewhat cruel, but life.

Rather reluctantly retired in March. Heyward is now gone. The punishment is complete.