From Drudge: CBS Planned Stolen Explosives For Election-Eve

Article (the article may not last long, and is subject to frequent updates).

60 MINS PLANNED BUSH MISSING EXPLOSIVES STORY FOR ELECTION EVE

News of missing explosives in Iraq -- first reported in April 2003 -- was being resurrected for a 60 MINUTES election eve broadcast designed to knock the Bush administration into a crisis mode.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of the Sunday edition of 60 MINUTES, said in a statement that "our plan was to run the story on October 31, but it became clear that it wouldn't hold..."

Elizabeth Jensen at the LOS ANGELES TIMES details on Tuesday how CBS NEWS and 60 MINUTES lost the story [which repackaged previously reported information on a large cache of explosives missing in Iraq, first published and broadcast in 2003].

The story instead debuted in the NYT. The paper slugged the story about missing explosives from April 2003 as "exclusive."

An NBCNEWS crew embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.

According to NBCNEWS, the explosives were already missing when the American troops arrived. (VIDEO CLIP)

It is not clear who exactly shopped an election eve repackaging of the missing explosives story.

The LA TIMES claims: The source on the story first went to 60 MINUTES but also expressed interest in working with the NY TIMES... "The tip was received last Wednesday."

CBSNEWS' plan to unleash the story just 24 hours before election day had one senior Bush official outraged.

"Darn, I wanted to see the forged documents to show how this was somehow covered up," the Bush source, who asked not to be named, mocked, recalling last months CBS airing of fraudulent Bush national guard letters.

Apparently, CBS revived an old story, and planned to release it like breaking news right before the election, before actual facts or context had any time to come out. If this is true, I'm not very pleased with CBS, to say the least. In fact, this would be clear and blatant election tampering, in my opinion.
Now, one interesting point from the CNN article linked to in the quote:

Prior to the Iraq war, the high-grade explosives at Al Qaqaa had been under the control of IAEA inspectors because the material could be used as a component in a nuclear weapon, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. IAEA and other U.N. inspectors left the country in March 2003 before the fighting began on March 19.

(underlining done by me)

So the media finally admits that Saddam had some suspicious materiel?

If Drudge is right, and it looks like he might be, I have little care for the continued existence of CBS. Getting a story or two wrong is unavoidable, and every single media outlet makes tons of accidental mistakes. However, purposefully manipulating this story, and after already fabricating the Bush National Guard memos, is despicable, unethical, and makes CBS unworthy of being called a “news source”. The Onion is more accurate than CBS, and The Onion makes their articles up!


Has America actually reached a point at which the media will blatantly lie to the public in order to give a politician a few extra votes? It was supposed to be the media that prevented this from happening, that’s why freedom of the press is in the First Amendment; so the media would be protected when they reveal a controversy.