Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) is seeking a House investigation of CBS News based on allegations that the network relied on forged documents to portray President Bush’s National Guard service in the early 1970s in a negative light.
Cox -- a conservative who worked in the Reagan White House -- sought the probe in a letter hand-delivered Tuesday to Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
In the letter, Cox said a probe was needed because of “the growing abundance of evidence that CBS News has aided and abetted fraud” and because “the network has declined to reveal the source of the disputed documents.”
Cox -- who posted the two-page letter on his congressional Web site (cox.house.gov) -- reminded Upton that the full Energy and Commerce Committee probed CBS News and other broadcast-news organizations over their flip-flops in calling the November 2000 election.
Upton’s press secretary was not immediately available for comment. A message left for CBS spokesman Dana McClintock was not returned.
CBS News has repeatedly claimed that the documents -- copies of letters written in 1972 by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian -- are authentic.
