Let me be candid.

I am inclined to believe the young George W. Bush got into the Texas Air National Guard because he was the son of a rich and powerful man and somebody pulled strings to keep him out of the meat grinder of Vietnam. I am also inclined to believe the future president did not always take his service seriously and refused an order to submit for his annual physical.

The one thing I’m not inclined to believe is that a recent story by CBS News proved any of the above.

As you surely know, the network has been under fire for some time now, ever since Dan Rather reported those charges on “60 Minutes.” The claim that Bush received favoritism was based on an interview with the man who says he made the recommendation, former Texas politician Ben Barnes, a Democrat who supports John Kerry.

It is, however, the second charge and the attempted substantiation thereof that have triggered a storm of criticism. CBS produced documents purportedly written by Bush’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, to support the contention that Bush refused a direct order. Since the broadcast, however, a number of other news organizations have cast doubt on the authenticity of those documents.

For instance, the Washington Post found that a date referred to in one memo is inconsistent with the record, Killian’s signature is at odds with that seen on previously authenticated papers, and the typeface on the documents is more consonant with modern word processing programs than with the electric typewriters of the 1970s. Perhaps most damning is that two document experts say they warned the network beforehand that there were problems with the memos, but that their concerns were ignored.

So apparently, these weren’t just fakes, but bad fakes.

Which suggests not only that CBS was hoaxed, but that it rushed to judgment. That it was blinded by a predisposition to believe.

I suspect that under oath, even George W. Bush’s most ardent supporters would admit that he seems to have once been the stereotypical rich man’s son – spoiled, dissolute, irresponsible. And it’s certainly not hard to believe somebody would bend the rules to do favors for such a man, especially when his papa’s a congressman. So it’s not hard to understand why CBS was apparently inclined to believe dubious documents.

But understanding is not the same as excusing. Frankly, you and I deserve better.

You expect such shoddiness from those “news” organizations that exist to serve as mouthpieces for a given political party or philosophy. But, the howling of its conservative detractors aside, that’s not what the network of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite is supposed to be about.

CBS’ failure represents another body blow to journalistic credibility, which can hardly afford new hits. In recent years, we’ve seen more people abandon mainstream news outlets, choosing instead those fringe outlets that reliably validate a preferred world view. Nowadays, people want their opinions echoed, not questioned.

It’s a troubling development, suggesting as it does a future where there is news for you, news for me, news for that race, creed or sexual orientation over there, but no common truth, no such thing as objective, verifiable fact.

We saw an example of that last month with the Swift Boat mess. The accusations against John Kerry were quickly discredited by mainstream news organizations, but they lived on when they were uncritically adopted by organizations with more partisan agendas.

As appalling as that was, this might be even worse, precisely because – at the risk of repetition – some of us expect better from CBS. Some of us still believe that in the search for truth, you have to be even more skeptical when dealing with things you’re predisposed to believe.

Maybe Dan Rather feels that way too, but right now, you couldn’t prove it by me.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald. His e-mail address is: lpitts@herald.com.

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