FOX News Channel host Linda Vester claimed on September 21 that FOX News Channel vetted the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the group's co-founder John E. O'Neill. Vester made the claim during a segment discussing the journalistic credibility of CBS in the wake of CBS's admission that it can no longer vouch for the authenticity of documents (which CBS aired on September 7) relating to President George W. Bush's National Guard service.

From the September 21 edition of FOX News Channel's DaySide with Linda Vester:

RICH MASTERS (Democratic strategist): I mean, FOX News ran to the air with the Swift Boat charges as well without anyone thoroughly vetting those charges, which have now proven completely false.

[crosstalk]

VESTER: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Rich, I love you to pieces, but you are going straight at me, and I spent a long time talking to John O'Neill and the Swift Boat Veterans, and, yes, we vet them, so I'm gonna make you, to walk back on that one, my friend.