60 minutes niger uranium

(hullo Hullabaloozers)

given the renewed focus on karl-gate, lets not forget one of my favorite stories - the bumped 60 Minutes nigeranium story that got rather-gated.

"Sept. 22 - In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same “60 Minutes” broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger.
[...]
A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK.
[...]
But just hours before the piece was set to air on the evening of Sept. 8, the reporters and producers on the CBS team were stunned to learn the story was being scrapped to make room for a seemingly sensational story about new documents showing that Bush ignored a direct order to take a flight physical while serving in the National Guard more than 30 years ago.
[...]
Some CBS reporters, as well as one of the network’s key sources, fear that the Niger uranium story may never run, at least not any time soon, on the grounds that the network can now not credibly air a report questioning how the Bush administration could have gotten taken in by phony documents." link

if 60 Minutes didnt bump this story for the TANG story at the last minute, perhaps Dan Rather would still have a job, and perhaps we'd all have a new president.

hmmm - think about that. many of us believe that Rove orchestrated the rathergate story in all of its standalone brilliance. imagine, if he was so brilliant that he intentionally orchestrated the burying of the nigeranium story in the process.

maybe it was all just a coincidence...

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update: ftr, here is a partial list of me calling for 60 mins to run the nigeranium story:

oct01: "id love to know why rove is so scared of this niger documentary... " (link)

oct22 04: " i wish someone at cbs would leak the niger thing" (link)

nov06 04: "will cbs show the niger piece now that the election is over?" (link)

dec01 04: " when will cbs show the niger piece?" (link)

jan16 05: "calling cbs!" (link)

feb18 05: " rathergate is still ongoing - itd be lovely to see that one in the courts... when will cbs do that niger piece? what happens if all krove's prior work gets disclosed somehow - we'll have to number them - krovegate 1, krovegate 2, krovegate 3, krovegate n..." (link)

mar10 05: "will cbs run the nigeranium story now that rather has signed off?" (link)

may04 05: "still no sign of cbs' nigeranium story. 7 months later." (link)

may19 05: "cbs2 (60mins2) is dead - will they ever show the bumped nigeranium show? methinx not." (link)

june19 05: "the dsm thingy has brought the nigeranium back to the fore. when will 60mins2 play *that* story? bastards." (link)