CBS admits "mistake" over memos in Bush military report

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2004

NEW YORK (AFP) — The CBS television network admitted it had been mistaken in using documents whose authenticity could not be verified in a report questioning President George W. Bush's Vietnam era 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 the report," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said in a statement.

"We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret," he added.

The documents -- memos allegedly written by Bush's commanding officer in the Texas National Guard in the 1970s -- suggested political pressure was being exerted to "sugar coat" the future president's service record.

The "60...