The executive producer of 60 Minutes Wednesday, Josh Howard is a confirmed liberal democrat operative.
Howard once worked for liberal democrats Charles Schumer and New York Congressman Steven Solarz. Records also indicate that Howard contributed money to the Solarz campaign AFTER being hired at CBS News.
So it now appears that, at least, two CBS producers and Dan Rather need to be relived of their jobs.
More below from the Media Research Center.
The top producer for the CBS show which used forged
documents to advance a liberal Democratic cause, once toiled for
left-wing Democrats -- elected ones, that is. Josh Howard, the
Executive Producer of the Wednesday edition of 60 Minutes, served on the staff of current Senator Charles Schumer when Schumer was in the state legislature, moved on to the staff of former New York Congressman Steven Solarz and later, while on the CBS News payroll, made large contributions to the Solarz campaign, Bob Novak revealed in his weekend compilation column.
Dan Rather objected to CBS hiring Diane Sawyer, who had worked for Richard Nixon, so did Rather fight Howard's hiring? And it isn't as if CBS is forgiving of long-past political activity. Just
in May the CBS Evening News tried to discredit John O'Neill of
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth by bringing up how in 1971 he was
"handpicked by the Nixon administration to discredit Kerry."
The MRC's Tim Graham alerted me to the first item in Novak's
weekend column which regularly features three or four short items,
a column not carried by the Washington Post, but which is run on
Sundays by many papers around the country.
Novak reported: "The executive producer of CBS's 60 Minutes
midweek broadcast, who partially blamed the Bush White House for
bogus documents used by Dan Rather, is a former staffer for New
York Democrats who was still making political contributions while
on the network's payroll.
"Josh Howard served on the staff of Rep. Stephen Solarz and
worked for Sen. Charles Schumer when Schumer was a state
assemblyman, a background confirmed by CBS. Federal election
reporting records show that Howard, identifying himself as a CBS
employee, contributed $1,000 in each of Solarz's last two
campaigns for Congress in 1990 and 1992.
"When CBS first conceded possible defects in the documents
about George W. Bush's military service, Howard said: 'If the
White House had just raised an eyebrow -- they didn't have to say they were forgeries -- but if there was any hint that there was a question, that would have sent us back.'"
For the rest of that Novak column, check the TownHall.com
posting of it: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040925.shtml
The 1990/1992 donations to Solarz came when Howard was working as Mike Wallace's producer, according to the career timeline outlined on Howard's posted bio which noted that Howard joined CBS in 1981, at WCBS-TV in New York City, thus placing his
Schumer/Solarz work in the late 1970s. Howard has spent the last
decade and a half with 60 Minutes, but he also put in a stint in
the late 1980s as a producer for the CBS Evening News.
With the merger of 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II in June,
Howard became Executive Producer of the Wednesday edition just in time to oversee the hit job on Bush using the forged memos.
For his bio on CBSNews.com, with a picture of him:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/04/60II/main621207.shtml
So, did Dan Rather object to Howard becoming a CBS Evening
News producer? After all, as Diane Sawyer confided on Larry King's
CNN show last Wednesday, when CBS hired her Rather told her: "'I
didn't think you should be hired. I fought your being hired and I
wanted you to hear it from me before you heard it from anybody
else,' because I had worked in the Nixon administration." See:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040924.asp#4
And impugning someone's present day motives based on a
political tie in the 1970s is certainly not out of bounds at CBS
News. Back on the May 4 CBS Evening News, in trying to discredit
the claims made at a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth press
conference, CBS reporter Byron Pitts asserted: "But if you think
this is just a concerned group of veterans, think again." Pitts
pointed out that John O'Neill "debated Kerry about Vietnam on the
Dick Cavett Show in 1971. Back then he was handpicked by the Nixon administration to discredit Kerry." See:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040505.asp#1
Just as Josh Howard was handpicked by Steven Solarz to
discredit House Republicans a few years later.
To use the reasoning forwarded by Pitts, "if you think CBS
News is just a concerned group of impartial journalists, think
again."
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