Didn't a big news outlet lie about General "body count" Westmorelan back during the Vietnam years???  Which news outlet was that??  Didn't they end up paying several million dollars to settle the suit??

IIRC 60 Minutes was sued by Westy.  I don't think he won his suit.

CBS did it in 1982.  It was “The Uncounted Enemy”, narrated by Mike Wallace.

Westmoreland sued but lost (and apparently he actually did fudge the numbers).

Still, CBS also took some hits on it and AFAIK never aired it again.

Actually, Westmoreland dropped the suit. There was an out of court "agreement" and everything disappeared.

In the late 80's, Rather did a story about some Vietnam Vets. They claimed to have done terrible things and talked about readjustment "problems". It was later proved that most of the group were never in Vietnam and the 1 or 2 who were could not have done what they claimed. Story did not get the attention it deserved then, maybe it should now?

Quoted: Actually, Westmoreland dropped the suit. There was an out of court "agreement" and everything disappeared. In the late 80's, Rather did a story about some Vietnam Vets. They claimed to have done terrible things and talked about readjustment "problems". It was later proved that most of the group were never in Vietnam and the 1 or 2 who were could not have done what they claimed. Story did not get the attention it deserved then, maybe it should now?

Good info - thanks.

Westmoreland recieved a large amount of cash from CBS.

Quoted: Quoted: Actually, Westmoreland dropped the suit. There was an out of court "agreement" and everything disappeared. In the late 80's, Rather did a story about some Vietnam Vets. They claimed to have done terrible things and talked about readjustment "problems". It was later proved that most of the group were never in Vietnam and the 1 or 2 who were could not have done what they claimed. Story did not get the attention it deserved then, maybe it should now? Good info - thanks.

             Rush reviewed this yesterday on his show and you are correct.

Communist Broadcasting System

Twice Wallace was entangled in landmark libel cases. His 60 Minutes report, "The Selling of Colonel Herbert" (1973), questioned a whistleblower's veracity about war crimes. Herbert sued Wallace's producer. Although the news team was exonerated, the Supreme Court ruled in Herbert v. Lando (1979) that the plaintiff had the right to examine the materials produced during the editorial process. A far bigger case followed when Wallace interviewed General William Westmoreland for the CBS Reports documentary The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception (1982). When TV Guide and CBS' own in-house investigation charged that the producers had violated standards of fairness, Westmoreland sued the network. The charges Wallace aired--conspiracy to cover-up the size of Viet Cong troop strength--were substantiated by trial evidence, but CBS' editorial tactics proved suspect. Early in 1985, just before Wallace was to testify, CBS issued an apology and Westmoreland dropped the suit.

Mike Wallace

Quoted: Actually, Westmoreland dropped the suit. There was an out of court "agreement" and everything disappeared....

Oops!!

You’re right – my fuzzy memory has failed me again!!

Arguably though (at the risk of looking like I’m defending my earlier misstatement), for all practical purposes Westmoreland did lose.  IIRC (this time!), as the trial progressed it became apparent he had virtually no chance of winning and might actually have to pay CBS’s legal fees.  

OTOH, CBS was taking some well-deserved hits over it’s own journalistic misconduct.

Both sides essentially agreed to cut their losses and bail.  For all practical purposes, Westmoreland got nothing.

The irony was that CBS’s story was fundamentally sound, but they handled it so dishonestly that it damaged their reputation.  Ironically, that might come pretty close to describing what’s happened more recently!!

Quoted: Didn't a big news outlet lie about General "body count" Westmorelan back during the Vietnam years???

I think you've got that backwards.