CBS to become "fair and balanced" -- why bother?

"According to a Broadcasting & Cable source in Washington, D.C., CBS News president Andrew Heyward, along with Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner, recently met with White House communications director Dan Bartlett, in part to repair chilly relations with the Bush administration.

CBS News’ popularity at the White House—never high to begin with—plunged further in the wake of Dan Rather’s discredited 60 Minutes story on George Bush’s National Guard service."

Given the fact that CBS has, to date, done absolutely nothing to resolve the forged documet case, their committment to becomming "fair and balanced" is suspect on its face. In addition, none other than Dan Rather himself claimed that CBS News president Andrew Heyward personally approved the story based on the false documents.

But why bother to claim to even want to become fair and balanced? Without some pretty big changes starting at the top it just isn't going to happen. Mere chair shuffling of Rather himself or terminating a one or more lower-level staffers is not going to raised the network's credibility.

At this point, no one is even clamoring to have CBS become fair and balanced. Most of the comments I have seen are critical of CBS for claiming their liberal bias doesn't exist but, after the forged documents case, that claim only rings true with the group that still believes Bill Clinton didn't have sex with that woman.

The CBS new division is a distant number three in a three horse race so perhaps they want to start to attract some red-state viewers. But they are supposedly making buckets of money in their news division so why pretend to be something they have no intention of being?