CBS News withering in the heat?
By David Bauder
Associated Press
A postponed "60 Minutes" report about whether Iraq had nuclear capabilities has landed CBS back in the hot seat.
The Ed Bradley story questions crucial evidence used by President Bush to support the war and was to air Sept. 8. CBS decided it was inappropriate to air so close to the election and instead aired Dan Rather's now-infamous story on Bush's time in the National Guard.
All this shows the scrutiny facing CBS journalists since Rather's report was discredited.
Bradley's report focuses on supposedly forged documents that showed Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger. Salon.com, which received a copy of the show before CBS postponed it, said the story "contains little new information, but it is ... credibly reported."
The decision to put it off troubles media critics.
"The idea that you would withhold journalism because you think it would have an effect on the world runs contrary to the whole idea of what journalism should be," said Peter Hart, an analyst with the liberal watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
There is, however, a long tradition among media organizations of taking particular care with stories that might be politically damaging so close to an election, for fear of being accused of trying to sway results.
The Bush administration also declined several requests to comment for the story, Bradley said. If, as Salon indicates, the report broke little new ground, those factors would have likely put CBS squarely in the crosshairs of those who accuse its journalists of a liberal bias.
CBS News president Andrew Heyward said the piece would run after the election.
This is the new world facing CBS News, besieged by both sides of a bitterly divided public.
CBS used to be more insulated from such criticism because it had less competition and benefited from the public's high level of trust, said Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University. That trust and exalted position have been chipped away.
The network's initial response to the Guard controversy indicated it was slow to realize that, he said.
