5 Texas Congressmen Demand CBS Retraction of Bush Guard Story

5 Texas Congressmen Demand CBS Retraction of Bush Guard Story

NewsMax Wires
Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Five Texas Republicans are among the members of Congress demanding that CBS retract its story about President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard amid allegations that documents used for the story are forgeries.

The demand was made in a letter written by House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, to CBS President Andrew Heyward and signed by 40 Republican members of Congress. The letter, circulated in final votes Wednesday, also asks the network to "disclose the identities of the people who have used your network to deceive your viewers in the final weeks of a presidential election."

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The Texans who signed the letter are Reps. Sam Johnson of Plano; Ralph Hall of Rockwall; Lamar Smith of San Antonio; Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock and John Culberson of Houston.

"Let's face it. When it comes to CBS News' reporting on this, this story is big on flaws and light on fact," Johnson said in a statement today. "You have to wonder, what happened to fairness and accuracy?"

Johnson is a former Vietnam prisoner of war, falling just a few months shy of seven years in captivity. Hall served as an aircraft carrier pilot in the Navy during World War II. He is a close friend of President Bush.

The CBS report questioning Bush's Guard service used memos purportedly written by Bush's late squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. The documents indicated Killian was pressured to "sugar coat" Bush's performance and that the future president had ignored an order to take a physical.

Killian's former secretary, Marian Knox, 86, was interviewed by CBS on Wednesday and said she believes the documents are fake, but they accurately reflected her former boss' feelings.

"I know that I didn't type them," she said. "However, the information in those is correct."

Smith, one of the Texans who signed the letter, said "the American people deserve to have the facts, not biased stories, so they can make up their own minds about whom to support."

"Free people are best served by a fair and objective news media," said Smith, who has not served in the military.

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