Dan Rather Case Study During the presidential race in 2004, CBS News' 60 Minutes reported that President Bush had apparently received preferential treatment as a young lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard. The broadcast, which was based in part on documents that turned out to be forgeries, called in to question the credibility of Rather and CBS. CBS initially defended its reporting, but later issued an apology and aired follow-up broadcasts intended to clarify the use of the documents, while at the same time insisting that the gist of the report was true. On Jan. 10, 2004, the network asked three CBS executives to resign and fired a fourth due to the controversy. Rather announced retirement but said that he was planning to retire in March 2005 and that the decision was not connected to the fallout from the National Guard report.

Dan Rather Case Study Document experts said the memos were not produced on a typewriter in 1972 and 1973, but on a computer at a later date. Newspapers, such as The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News, conducted their own investigations and found problems with the memos. The Dallas Morning News published an interview with secretary, Marian Carr Knox, who said she did not type the memos, although she typed similar ones for her boss. Though she did say the content was accurate. "I remember very vividly when Bush was there and all the yak-yak that was going on about it.“ CBS said the documents were screened by experts who said they were typed in the 1970s. CBS News' web site posted letters from two document experts who supported the memos' authenticity. A panel that Viacom commissioned to investigate the story released a report saying the story didn't meet CBS News' internal standards because producers wanted to be the first to break the story.

Interview with source of documents

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