CBS's ousting of five journalists who covered George Bush's service in the National Guard was done under cover of what the network called an "Independent Review Panel."

the makeup of the "panel" was just two guys, Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi. do their names ring a bell?

Remember Dick Thornburgh, daddy Bush's Attorney General.....the one who helped whitewash the investigation of the Exxon Valdez Oil spill, letting the oil giant off the hook on big damages. Thornburgh's fat pay as counsel to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, the Washington law-and-lobbying outfit, is substantially due to his job as a Bush retainer. This is a kind of conflict of interest that hardly suggests "independent." wouldn't you say?

Then there's Boccardi......let's see.....not exactly a prince of journalism. This is the gent who, as CEO of the Associated Press, spiked his own wire service's exposure of Oliver North and his traitorous dealings with Khomeini.

Mary Mapes, one of those executed, produced the exposé of the torture at Abu Ghraib when other networks had the same material and buried it.

of course, Dan Rather's career is toasted......but Thornburg and Boccardi are far from being an "independent panel."

And yet despite this alleged conflict of interest, the review board came out and said that there was no evidence of partisan politics on the part of the fired staffers.

Originally posted by Rolader
CBS's ousting of five journalists who covered George Bush's service in the National Guard was done under cover of what the network called an "Independent Review Panel."

the makeup of the "panel" was just two guys, Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi. do their names ring a bell?

Remember Dick Thornburgh, daddy Bush's Attorney General.....

I believe his conclusion was that CBS was sloppy but partisanship played no part.

I guess the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy ain't what it used to be.