Last week, John Ellis mocked the "Reverse Nuremberg" defense offered by CBS News President Andrew Heyward, who inexplicably kept his job in the rout at CBS following the panel report on Memogate.
Well, now Mr. Ellis has something new to mock - remember how CBS fired Mary Mapes and announced that three other executives had been "asked to leave"? Well, according to CBS chairman Leslie Moonves, they would prefer not to:
Mr. Moonves again defended retaining the president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, saying that he was satisfied that Mr. Heyward had asked the right questions before the broadcast, though he was "denied the right answers" by the executives under him.
The report's producer, Mary Mapes, was fired as a result of the panel's report. Three others were asked to resign. Mr. Moonves revealed today that none of the three have done so. Asked what CBS will do if they refuse to resign, Mr. Moonves said he could not talk about that situation. "It's a legal issue," he said.
It must be like herding cats over there.
LATE UPDATE: I was ahead of the meme:
Bartleby Democrats
Friday, February 4, 2005; Page A16
HERMAN MELVILLE'S "Bartleby, the Scrivener" tells the tale of a lawyer's assistant who inexplicably stops doing his job, instead spending his days staring blankly at a brick wall. "I'd prefer not to," he invariably tells his employer when asked to copy a paper, go to the post office or even answer a question. "No: at present I would prefer not to make any change at all," Bartleby says when asked to leave. In their response to President Bush's State of the Union address Wednesday night -- indeed, in much of their reaction to Mr. Bush's push on Social Security -- the Democrats share a disturbing resemblance to Bartleby.
Nice literary reference.
Posted by: John Tabin | January 20, 2005 at 12:27 AM
Oh well! What can CBS possibly do? Fire them or something? Let's all shed a tear for poor hapless CBS! ^_~
Posted by: Towering Barbarian | January 20, 2005 at 05:20 AM
They were fired before they were fired so they aren't fired.
Posted by: benrand | January 20, 2005 at 06:51 AM
Great tag line. Thanks for the chuckle---it's a gray, wintery day here, and every little bit helps lighten things up.
Posted by: veryretired | January 20, 2005 at 10:24 AM
Until someone takes the blame for what happened nothing will be resolved. I personally think it should start with Dan Rather who seems to think he is above everything.
Posted by: RoseO | January 20, 2005 at 11:16 AM
They should have asked them to spend more time with their families.
The requested resignation is designed to be used secretly, is it possible that CBS managers don't know this? Does the FCC regulate PHB wattage?
Posted by: Ripper | January 21, 2005 at 10:18 AM
Give them the window seat.
Posted by: Neo | January 21, 2005 at 09:50 PM