A senior executive at CBS News Corporation has issued an apology to a viewer who complained via email about anchor Katie Couric’s reporting from Iraq and was insulted in CBS’s reply.
CBS Apologizes To Viewer
The emailed reply, which came from Evening@cbsnews.com, implied Errol Siegel of Austin, Texas, who’s in the email security business, was unintelligent and the author of it devalued information found on blogs.
Initially, CBS would not confirm that the email came from within CBS, but IP tracking revealed that it had come from inside CBS’s New York headquarters.
After the news broke, Mr. Siegel pursued CBS further, seeking public confirmation of the email, an apology, and clarification of CBS’s position on blogs and those that read and contribute to them.
Mr. Siegel says Linda Mason, Senior Vice President of Special Projects for CBS News Corporation, issued him this statement:
“Thank you for contacting us directly about the confusion over the source of an email you were sent in response to your thoughts on the CBS EVENING NEWS in the Mid-East. On behalf of CBS News, I want to confirm to you that the email reply you received did come from someone at CBS. The identity of that person is being investigated and the matter is being taken very seriously.
“Let me also note that CBS News has its own blog, Public Eye, where we encourage viewer input. We also read responses on Evening.CBSNews.com. We welcome a dialogue with the public and we are very sorry you received the response you did, but we thank you for calling it to our attention so we can correct the situation.”
(Editor’s Note: murdok writer Mike Sachoff confirmed Ms. Mason’s statement to Mr. Siegel after this reporter’s request for comment was rebuffed by a CBS mailserver. An automated response to the first request, from this reporter’s personal email address, indicated the address has been placed into a blacklist on that mailserver.)
