February 16, 2005
"Leslie Moonves, Meet Howell Raines"
RatherGate refuses to die (hat tip: RatherBiased).
The three CBS staffers asked to resign after the airing of the fake Bush Air National Guard story have refused to go. What's more, they have retained counsel and may sue CBS News, alleging that upper management and the investigators did not run a real investigation, but one designed from the outset to protect the CBS News corporate brass, not to ferret out the truth.
Because of this, Josh Howard, the executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" during the RatherGate episode, is threatening CBS News with a wrongful termination lawsuit that would require testimony under oath and could subpoena internal documents and email that may not have not appeared as evidence in the official 224-page Thornburgh Report (PDF). The two other CBS News Executives asked to resign, Mary Murphy and Betsy West, have also refused to step down and seem willing to fight CBS brass for what they consider the truth.
CBS News claims that Howard's accusations have "no basis in fact." That seems to be a common complaint around CBS News these days.
So what do we have here?
The last time I heard of such infighting at a news organization was when Howell Raines was forced out at the New York Times over the Jayson Blair scandal. If Howard, Murphy and West are playing it straight, then it seems entirely plausible that Leslie Moonves and Andrew Heyward might be far more interested in protecting their own positions than preserving what remains of the tattered credibility of CBS News.
CBS News cannot handle another scandal.
The brand is severely hobbled at ths point, and if Howard, Murphy, and West can establish any sort of merit with a public already distrustful of CBS, and get the easily ascribed "covering our own asses" defense tarred to Heyward and Moonves, then its effectively "Game Over" for CBS News, regardless of what a judge or jury later determine.
Their effectiveness as executives most likely will be fatally compromised, regardless of any eventual vindication in a court of law. What's more, if Howard does pursue his case and presents evidence damning the structure of the investigation, it could potentially also turn on the two "independent" investigators, former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press head Louis Boccardi.
Many already have their doubts about the so-called "Thornburgh Report," and if it appears that the report was compromised by design, Thornburgh and Boccardi could end up with their reputations in hot water along with the CBS News brass.
This one is a long way from over, but I don't see how Heyward or Moonves can have much of a future remaining at CBS News.
