CBS spikes story on Niger forged documents

Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone at a table with members of the FCC at the 2003 cable tv trade show in Chicago

Pulling a story on the forged documents which were used to justify going to war is even worse than using forged documents in a story.

What are they going to do, air it after Bush is elected?

This is a democracy and media are supposed to run critical stories before the election, so voters can make an informed choice.

Whoever made this decision should be ashamed of themselves, resign, and go into PR. They figured out a way to lower morale at CBS News even more.

And I am truly sorry for the producers and reporters who worked on this story.

And it looks really bad after all the criticism from the right and right after Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone declared he'd put the bottom line over issues and party loyalty and support Bush.

While CBS had certainly lost credibility, this drives a stake through the heart of any credibilty the once hallowed news organization had left.

There still is time to make the right decision and air the story which was scheduled to run until it was bumped for the National Guard story.

Or at the very least, do what Warner did with David Russell's documentary Soldier's pay and make it available through other channels (though the Niger story should be on 60 Minutes and reach their huge audience - the CBS News of old might even have aired Soldier's Pay).