Rather Should Resign

I remember a few years ago when Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe political commentator, was suspended for four months without pay for simply not citing a source for a story that he thought was in the public domain. (click here for Jacoby's response) To make a long story short Jacoby was asked to resign, for what was called journalistic misconduct. He contends that it was simply an error that he did not write one line in his column stating one of his sources was from an anonymous email that had been going around (which he knew about but did not cite). Whether the Boston Globe's reaction was warranted or not is not the issue here.

What is the issue here is that a well known paper felt that one of it's journalists jeopardized the paper's reputation, was suspended and asked to resign for simply making a mistake. Yet Dan Rather and his producer Mary Mapes who both promoted and then defended a story that was backed up with forged documents are still at their jobs. Neither has been suspended and Rather has apologized.

Based on what happened to Jacoby, Rather should be fired. It does not matter how sorry he is. There should be consequences for his actions. Not only did he report this story, but he vigorously defended it up until he had to admit that he used fake documents to back up a story that could, if it had been proven true, have affected a national election. And he did all this knowing that others at CBS News were unsure of the authenticity of these documents.

Couple these FACTS with the fact that Mary Mapes contacted the Democratic National committee about this story and that the DNC released it's "Fortunate Son" ad campaign on its website a couple of days after the initial 60 Minutes story ran, makes this whole thing reek of liberal bias.

Rather and Mapes have not made a mistake. They have attempted to deceive the American people. These two were so happy that they had a story that would impugn a man that they hate so much, that they forgot to verify the story. They have been exposed as partisan liberal hacks and not the objective journalists that they claim to be. If CBS News does not fire them then CBS's journalistic integrity will be irreparably damaged.

Resign Dan and help restore the dignity that CBS News has now lost.