Isikoff Called for Firings at CBS Last Fall

Media Matters

Despite Isikoff's own frequent reliance on questionable sources, he was blistering in his criticism of CBS' 2004 story about President Bush's National Guard record (or lack thereof).

Appearing on the September 26, 2004, edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, Isikoff said: "I have to say, if you look at what happened here, this wasn't a mistake. This was a complete meltdown of basic, minimal journalistic standards." Isikoff went on to suggest to host Howard Kurtz that everyone involved in the story should have been fired:


KURTZ: Michael Isikoff, Time magazine poll, 43 percent say what CBS did was an honest mistake; 40 percent say CBS was deliberately trying to mislead the public. Not the greatest vote of confidence. How much of all this is Rather's fault?

ISIKOFF: Well, look, he is the managing editor of the CBS Evening News, and they -- they featured this on the Evening News. So, I mean, he has to take responsibility, clearly. He is the lead guy in charge.

KURTZ: And just to be fair, he has taken responsibility, and we saw his apology at the top of the show. He's not blaming it on the work of others, but it's a collaborative enterprise.

ISIKOFF: Well, right, but if somebody gets fired, can somebody else be fired without the top guy who is responsible for the broadcast not getting the axe? It's hard to imagine. If this had happened at a college newspaper, and they made -- published a story about fraudulent documents about the college president, and it turned out to be that the documents themselves were completely phony, it's hard to imagine that the entire college newspaper staff wouldn't be fired.