CBS Chief Favors Delay of ’60 Minutes’ Report

Viacom co-president Leslie Moonves told an investors conference Tuesday that results of an independent investigation into what went wrong with its CBS News “60 Minutes” report “obviously ... should be done probably after the election is over so that it doesn’t affect what’s going on.”

Moonves, who is also the chairman of CBS, spoke in response to a question at a Goldman Sachs conference and prefaced his comments by saying CBS “is not sure exactly” when the investigation will conclude. Asked about the comments later, CBS said in a statement that “the timing of the panel’s report will be determined by the panel.” A person familiar with the situation said that Moonves was speculating.

The Sept. 8 “60 Minutes” report used documents, which CBS now says are unverifiable, to report that President Bush received special treatment while in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s. When CBS News apologized for the report on Sept. 20, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said he hoped the investigation would take weeks, not months.

The two-man panel started interviewing CBS News employees last week, but many of the key players have yet to talk to them, network sources said.

Moonves also told the investors that panelist Richard L. Thornburgh, the U.S. attorney general under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, was specifically chosen “so that there wouldn’t be any doubts to any bias.” The other panel member is Louis Boccardi, the former head of Associated Press.