CBS: Still faking news after all these years.

From this story:

"It was a graphic, and we don’t feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."

Bull. Pictures, especially on television, create the atmosphere in which the text of a story is regarded. Same thing with music. Would we believe what Bob Schieffer if every time he appeared on camera, Darth Vader music was played in the background?

But let's put their assertion to the test, with their own article. See if the added graphics change the editorial value.

‘48 Hours’ apologizes for altered image

The executive producer of CBS’ "48 Hours Mystery"

has apologized for airing an altered image of the front page of the Tribune

in an episode about the murder trial of Ryan Ferguson that aired Saturday night.

The producer, Susan Zirinsky, said she didn’t know the image of the front page containing the story about Ferguson’s sentencing had been manipulated until this week after Tribune Managing Editor Jim Robertson

complained to CBS in an e-mail.

"It was an egregious oversight for us not to know it," Zirinsky said. "It was a graphic, and we don’t feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."

Bob Steele, a senior ethics faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a premier journalism training center in Florida,

said CBS executives should apologize to viewers and use the network’s Web site to explain what went wrong and accept responsibility for an ethical failure.

"What they did wrong was twofold," he said. "One, they altered reality by changing a piece of documentary journalism.

"Secondly, they deceived their viewers because they left them with the impression that what they showed was a truthful representation of what the newspaper showed."

The TV newsmagazine showed several front pages from the Tribune during its hourlong program "Dream Killer," about the trial of Ferguson, found guilty in October of killing Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt.

During the show, which raised the question of whether Ferguson was wrongly convicted, a graphic of the Tribune’s Dec. 5 front page showed a photograph of Ferguson that was different from what actually appeared in the Tribune. The original photograph showed Ferguson in a jail uniform as he appeared at his sentencing. In "Dream Killer," Ferguson was shown in a suit and tie.

Zirinsky said the graphic has been changed in the master tape of the program to accurately reflect the Tribune’s front page. A freelancer hired by CBS for the first time was responsible for the alteration, Zirinsky said.

"We feel we are doing the right thing," she said. "We have apologized to the editor."
Steele, of the Poynter Institute,

said CBS can explain what went wrong in terms of the action of its freelancer but said that doesn’t absolve the network of its responsibility.

"CBS retains the responsibility of what they put on the air, including how" its news "is gathered and how it is produced," he said.

Ferguson, 21, was found guilty Oct. 21 of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the slaying of Heitholt, whose bludgeoned and strangled body

was found in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2001, in a parking lot next to the Tribune. Ferguson and Chuck Erickson were arrested March 10, 2004, after witnesses told police Erickson had spoken of the crime to a friend.

[I could go on, but I think I've made my point. -- Blogmaster, or "BM" for short]