Letter I sent at : http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml
Dear CBS News;
I’ve heard from multiple sources in the past few days that CBS has decided to delay the broadcast of a piece on the president’s reliance on bad information that led to the war in Iraq. What’s worse, I’ve heard you’ve delayed this broadcast because it might be “political”. HEAVEN FORBID our NEWS might actually be topical and help us make a decision about the election of our president.
Yes you screwed up with the forged documents thing in the past few weeks, and no doubt you got lots of nasty press and phone calls, e-mails over that. But does that mean you have to self-censor yourself and cow-tow to the folks who were upset about that broadcast?
Catch your breath, brush the tears out of your eyes, stand tall, triple your check your facts… and air the piece on the Iraq war. What better way can you rebuild your credibility than ‘speaking truth to power’ at a time where it can make a difference. Delaying this broadcast until after the election is just ridiculous, since after the election it will either result in feelings of regret (“Oh god.. and I voted for him, if I had only known the truth.”) or relief (“Phew, good thing we got him out of there”). Either way, while it’s still news, it’s ‘after the fact’ and thus only a fraction as relevant as it could have been.
Take a chance, dare to be relevant.
-Matthew Baya
Ellsworth, ME