George W. Bush is shown climbing the steps to his Texas National Guard fighter plane in this undated photo. Picture / Reuters

George W. Bush is shown climbing the steps to his Texas National Guard fighter plane in this undated photo. Picture / Reuters

10.00am


NEW YORK - In an enormous blow to its credibility, CBS News on Monday said it had been deliberately misled over the authenticity of documents it aired in a story challenging US President George W Bush's military service.

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in a report," CBS News said in a statement.

"We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret," the network said, adding that it had launched an internal investigation of the matter.

The announcement marked a dramatic and embarrassing reversal by the network that just five days ago said it was satisfied with the accuracy of the documents first aired earlier this month in a 60 Minutes II' segment.

The scandal put CBS on the list of US journalism icons tainted in recent years by lies masquerading as truth. Other casualties include The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, the New Republic, CNN and NBC. The Los Angeles Times has also had to apologise for a scandal that blurred the lines between news and advertising.

Experts said the controversy damaged the credibility of what was once America's premier broadcast organisation as well as that of its leading newsman, Dan Rather.

Rather has anchored the CBS Evening News since 1981, when he succeeded Walter Cronkite - dubbed "the most trusted man in America" for his perceived objectivity.

In a separate statement, Rather apologised for what he called a "mistake in judgment" and said CBS News had been misled on the key question of how its source for the documents had obtained the papers.

The four memos, purportedly written and signed by the late Air National Guard Lt Col Jerry Killian, said he was under pressure from his superiors to "sugar coat" Bush's service record after Bush, then a Guard pilot, was grounded for his failure to perform to standards or to take a physical.

Immediately after CBS aired the original report, Bush supporters and competing news organisations challenged the authenticity of the documents.

They said comparisons of the Killian memos with other documents from Bush's National Guard service revealed inconsistencies in terminology and word processing techniques.