Word: underreporting
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Dates: during 1983-1983
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...documentary The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception appeared to accuse retired Army General William Westmoreland of being one of the principal figures behind a "conspiracy at the highest levels of American military intelligence." The alleged aim was to underreport enemy troop strength and create the illusion that the U.S. was winning the Viet Nam War. After the January broadcast, the angered general turned down the network's offer of 15 minutes' rebuttal time and last September slapped CBS with a $120 million libel suit. That suit is generating its own prickly set of constitutional complications...
There was more than a hint of embarrassment, though. The report provided details on eleven "principal flaws" in the preparation and production of the program. Among them: a failure to prove that there was a "conspiracy" to underreport enemy troop strength; failure to identify one of the sources as a "paid consultant"; "an imbalance in presenting the two sides of the issue"; and the "coddling of sympathetic witnesses" when the documentary was filmed. Also included in the report were transcripts of some interviews done for the show that displayed apparent coaching of a source by a CBS journalist...