Four CBS News employees, including three executives, have been fired for their role in preparing and reporting a disputed story about President Bush’s National Guard service that relied on allegedly forged documents.

The network fired Mary Mapes, producer of the report; Josh Howard, executive producer of “60 Minutes Wednesday” and his top deputy Mary Murphy; and senior vice president Betsy West.

The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles when putting the story together. The panel also said CBS News had added to that failure with a “rigid and blind” defense of the 60 Minutes report.

*For more on this story,

read the full independent panel report on CBS News

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