CBS News back in action!

By Joshua Bunton

From Dan Rather's credible reporting about President Bush's National Guard service prior to the November 2004 election, to writing a prewritten story about Terri Schiavo's death, CBS has proved to be America's most credible news service.

Most Americans, by now, are familiar with the Terri Schiavo story.

The story of Terri is heart-breaking. In 1990, doctors claim Terri suffered a heart-attack causing her to collapse for minutes without oxygen getting to her brain. As a result, Terri has been perceived by many to be in a "permanent vegetative state."

For 15 years, Terri's husband Michael and her parents Bob and Mary Schindler have been involved in legal battles concerning Terri.

On March 18, 2005 Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, which sustained her life for 15 years, was removed. As of this writing, Terri Schiavo has been without her feeding tube for approximately 12 days.

This brings us to CBS news. While listening to the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck radio program on March 29, 2005, a listener emailed Glenn a copy of an article CBS News posted on its website.

The article was titled, "Short, Sad Life of Terri Schiavo," by CBSNews.com's Christine Lagorio. The article was prewritten for Terri Schiavo's death. The article appeared on CBSNews.com on March 28, 2005. CBS News removed the article by March 29, 2005.

I obtained a copy of this article off Mr. Beck's website.

Contained in this article are excerpts CBS News felt were needed, for America to remember Terri Schiavo by, after she passed. Here are the major excerpts I found:

• "Known as Terri Schiavo, the severely brain damaged Florida woman spent her last months in the glare of the public eye as a few still images and several seconds of video of her repeatedly broadcast around the world.
  
  
• "She appeared made up and dressed, although the 41-year-old had not enuciated a word nor made any choices since 1990."
  
  
• "Terri Schiavo was locked in her own personal image as far back as anyone can tell. She was an overweight child who gained pounds through adolescence, reaching at least 200 by her senior year of high school."
  
  
• "Those close friends have been telling newspapers that Terri never excelled in school. She sometimes talked about becoming a veterinarian, but got barely passing grades while in Catholic school."
  
  
• "Most accounts say she ate regularly, or even she ate large portions."
  
  
• "She had purged, apparently, or vomited, binged, which is what bulimics do." This line was according to Gary fox, who represented Michael Schiavo in a medical malpractice suit.
  
  
• "Michael Schiavo, who was at the bedside of his wife Terri when she died, told Larry King that he lives now with another women with whom he has two children."
  
  
• "I can love more than on person," he told King. "Everybody can do that."
  
  
• "According to friends and relatives, Michael Schiavo was Terri's only love. His big-but-tight-knit family took in Michael's bride, and she befriended his siblings, including his brother, Scott."
  
  
• "It's so sad they've turned this wonderful person into a slideshow," Scott Shiavo told the Post. "It's such a shame. It really is. The one that's hurt the most here is Terri.
  
  

It would seem to the untrained eye that CBS was preparing the story to have it posted first when, and if, Terri's death occurs.

However, after researching other articles Christine Lagorio has wrote, or did special reporting on, I have found her to be on the more liberal side.

In an article titled, "Hillary: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," posted on RightisWrong.com, here are a few excerpts:

• "With this all-but-conceded presidential ambition as backdrop, Clinton has certainly been much more of a centrist senator than her liberal New York constituency required."
  
  
• "She may have been even more centrist than her local base would ordinarily tolerate, given a pass partly because of her aura as right-wing obsession and left-wing pioneer, and partly because of the promise of her grand White House return."
  
  
• "Even on the domestic side, where she's a bitter opponent of the Bush tax cuts and Medicare drug bills, she's co-sponsoring a brutal bill imposing a 40-hour work week on welfare recipients and a Bush-backed, Rick Santorum-sponsored bill for faith-based social-service funding."
  
  
• While she's received strong ratings from top environmental groups, she's voted with the Republicans on curious key issues — from air-conditioning efficiency to toxic incinerators. She was even part of a Senate bipartisan minority to back oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
  
  

Now, let me assure you, I'm not implying anything but the obvious: "That CBS News has not learned its lesson from the Dan Rather memogate in 2004."

Whether CBS News realizes it or not, the Terri Schiavo story is not about her personal life, whether she was overweight or made poor grades in school. This story is about morals, faith, and a right-to-life.

Let's face it, prisoners on death row, and animals in humane societies, currently have more rights than Terri Schiavo. Perhaps CBS News, and Christine could think about more important issues than trying to be first when, and if, Terri passes on.

May God Bless Terri, her parents, and family.

© Joshua Bunton