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C00002 00002	cbs[e86,jmc]	CBS had a legal but not moral right to lie about Westmoreland
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cbs[e86,jmc]	CBS had a legal but not moral right to lie about Westmoreland

	In the libel case involving CBS and General Westmoreland,
there was a lot of haggling over who said what and when, but
in the essentials of the matter it comes out that Westmoreland
was telling the truth and CBS, Mike  Wallace, etc. were lying.
That Westmoreland was telling the truth is important, because
a major part of the left case against the U.S. effort to save
South Vietnam is its claim that the Government was mendacious.
These accusations, occasionally true, distract attention from
the fact that the Government was mainly telling the truth and
the left was mainly telling falsehoods, only some of which they
believed.

	We need to ask why CBS was lying.  There are a variety
of reasons.  The main one at most times was momentum.  Once
CBS had taken a position, it was inclined to interpret facts
so as to support that position.  This went so far as to stretch
facts to support the position and even to invent facts to support
the position.  Why did they get into this position in the first
place?  The explanation of that is essentially to explain why
the majority of American intellectuals drifted into a position
opposed to American society in the 1960s.  It would also be nice
to know why most of them drifted back in the 1970s and 1980s.
The CBS News Department and the individuals that operate it
show no special features compared to other members of their
social class.

	CBS officials have claimed that they were vindicated
by the result of Westmoreland's libel suit.  This is silly,
because the essence of their legal case was that they had
a right to lie, unless Westmoreland could prove that their
animus against him was personal.

	Indeed the media have a legal right to lie according
to the First Amendment.  So does anyone else except when under
oath.  This is as it should be, because it is too dangerous
to our freedom to allow someone to be put in jail or fined
or made to pay damages merely because some lawyer was able
to persuade twelve jurymen that he was lying.

	However, no-one has a moral right to lie.