October 26, 2004
WHAT NEXT, THEY SCOOP THE WEEKLY WORLD NEWS ON AN ALIEN ELVIS STORY?
CBS Had Iraq Story, Just Not in Time: The network was the first to know about the missing explosives, but getting interviews on tape proved a problem. (Elizabeth Jensen, October 26, 2004, LA Times)
CBS News' "60 Minutes" landed a major story last week: the disappearance in Iraq of a large cache of explosives supposed to be under guard by the U.S. military. But the network nevertheless found itself in the journalistically awkward position of playing catch-up when it wasn't able to get the piece on the air as soon as its reporting partner, the New York Times, which made the report its lead story Monday.Breaking the story would have been a welcome coup for CBS News as it seeks to emerge from the cloud cast by its use of unverified documents in reporting on President Bush's 1970s military service.
Instead, CBS was relegated to airing a report Monday evening, and "60 Minutes" merely got credit in the newspaper, which ran an unusual box noting that the article "was reported in cooperation with the CBS News program '60 Minutes.' '60 Minutes' first obtained information on the missing explosives."
Jeff Fager, executive producer of the Sunday edition of "60 Minutes," said in a statement that "our plan was to run the story on [Oct.] 31, but it became clear that it wouldn't hold, so the decision was made for the Times to run it."
Talk about bottom-feeding, the Times is stealing bogus stories from discredited CBS? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 26, 2004 4:36 PM
But why did they run it this week. Wouldn't it have been more effective if they had run it next weekend.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at October 26, 2004 5:14 PMAt this point one wonders which major "news" outlet will be first to run a Larry Flynt produced Bush-paid-for-an-abortion story this week...
Posted by: brian at October 26, 2004 6:12 PMThe Times ran it this week, because they have the ability to keep a story going for several days at a time, so long as those buttinskies at NBC News don't spill the beans about the explosives never being there in the first place when the U.S. troops arrived (big cold shoulder to Tom Brokaw at all the fancy Upper West Side parties for the next few months for letting that info make it on the air).
On the other hand, "60 Minutes" only has two time slots a week and the shows are inependently produced, even though they have the same goal of getting Kerry elected. So the Don Hewitt alumni group (as opposed to the Dan Rather Wednesday night accolyte group) went with the show closest to Election Day.
Posted by: John at October 26, 2004 6:30 PM"But why did they run it this week."
So that there's enough time to lay the blame for a Madrid-like attack before the elections on the incompetence of the administration. See the comments at Belmont Club & Roger L. Simon.
Posted by: at October 26, 2004 10:32 PM