Investigative Reporters, Digging Until It Hurts

Not all investigative reporters stand by discredited stories. While researching a 1997 book on JFK, Seymour Hersh was taken in by Lawrence Cusack III, who was peddling what turned out to be fake Kennedy documents. But Hersh concluded that he'd been had, deleted the material from "The Dark Side of Camelot" before publication and helped expose Cusack, who was convicted of fraud.

Mapes, however, did not lose faith in her story even after her key source, former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, admitted lying to her about where he obtained the disputed documents. Nor was she swayed by criticism from some of the document experts hired by CBS to vet the papers (one of whom, Emily Will, recently set up a Web site to denounce Mapes's book).

Instead, Mapes continues to argue that the "60 Minutes II" segment was "well researched and well documented" and that CBS and its corporate parent, Viacom, caved to pressure by abandoning her and the story.

"What CBS News did was choose to handle this in the most divisive way possible by launching an investigation that forced people to turn against each other, by questioning its employees, and by believing conservative bloggers instead of people who worked for them for decades," Mapes told CNN.

Actually, what CBS did was try to salvage its reputation by asking outsiders to evaluate a story that its news division could no longer defend.

Without the determination of investigative journalists to ignore outside pressure while turning over every possible rock, some important secrets would never be uncovered. But sometimes the reporters never hit pay dirt and just dig themselves into a deeper hole.

Footnote: The controversy surrounding Bob Woodward involves not an inaccurate story but the holding back of information. Woodward, the Washington Post sleuth who apologized last week for not telling his bosses that a senior administration official had discussed Plame with him in 2003, has drawn criticism from some colleagues over his unique role in which he basically writes books while remaining on the Post payroll. He gave his detractors ammunition by commenting on the case while keeping quiet about his involvement. Those who say that Woodward's extraordinary access to top administration officials has made him too much of an insider have a point, but they forget that his books invariably produce news, often about conflicts among those officials.

Plagiarism Watch

Ken Parish Perkins, television critic for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, resigned last week after being confronted with several instances of apparent plagiarism.

After a caller noted that Perkins had used a paragraph as it appeared verbatim in Entertainment Weekly, editors found several pieces in which he had lifted long phrases or sentences without attribution. Perkins was such a hard worker that "it's so hard for us to understand why this happened," Editor Jim Witt was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Bakersfield Californian found that more than a third of the 96 stories written by Nada Behziz contained "plagiarized material, misattributed quotes and information, factual errors or people whose existence could not be verified -- including seven physicians and a UCLA professor." Behziz, who was fired last month, told the paper: "This is a witch hunt. Too bad your news organization is not this vigilant in pursuing true wrongdoers."

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program.