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CBS Fires Four over Bush National Guard Story

Published January 10, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

CBS News fires four staff members for their roles in producing a 60 Minutes Wednesday report on President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard. The report relied on falsified documents that CBS News later admitted it could not verify.

The firings included Betsy West, the senior vice president for prime time news programs; Josh Howard, the executive producer of 60 Minutes Wednesday; and Howard's deputy, senior broadcast producer Mary Murphy. The producer of the report, Mary Mapes, was also fired.

The move follows the release of an independent panel report prepared by former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press President Louis Boccardi. The panel faulted "a myopic zeal to be the first news organization to broadcast" the documents and "a blind defense of the segment after it aired despite numerous indications of its shortcomings."

Dan Rather, who narrated the story, announced in November that he will step down as anchor of CBS Evening News in March.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

Protect Connecticut Public

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