As is well known, "60 Minutes Wednesday" aired a segment about President Bush in his younger days on September 8, 2004. In that show Dan Rather avowed that CBS News obtained the services of experts, who vouched the authenticity of certain documents that apparently revealed a sinister side to the current president and a cover up of his failing a physical exam and his lack of completing the required service in the National Guard. Some view this reporting not merely a new story but an attempt to sway the election.

CBS News came under a barrage of attacks with respect to the experts it said it had engaged. Many others looked at those documents and doubted their authenticity. Initially, CBS News put its wagons in a circle and guarded itself against these questions and criticisms. On September 20, however, CBS News announced that it could not "prove that the documents are authentic. We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

CBS requested the services of Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi to examine the incident. In January of this year Thornburgh and Boccardi issued a report, citing the overzealousness of several employees at CBS News to get the story out. As a result, four individuals at CBS News either resigned or were fired. Interestingly, perhaps tellingly, the corporation did not fire Dan Rather. Does anybody seriously doubt that he played a role in reporting this story as quickly as possible? Additionally, given Rather's clear pro-Democratic stance, does anyone really doubt that political bias played a part?

Thornburgh and Boccardi did note that others were also working on the story, including the New York Times and the Associated Press. Pressures to break a story first are quite real, but neither the Times nor the Associated Press could verify the accuracy of these alleged documents and therefore did not run the story. The integrity of at least the key decision makers kept them from making the same mistake. In the case of the New York Times, the Jason Blair incident (a former reporter who faked a number of news stories) may have helped to restrain their goals of reporting a story first.

The real question, which Thornburgh and Boccardi did not address, focuses on the culture within CBS News. Even after Rather is no longer the anchor and four others have left the organization, will things be different at this news organization. Will their eagerness to report a story first continue to dominate the ethic of getting the story right? Will any lingering political bias taint future stories about personages with whom they disagree?

Similar questions confront corporate America and accounting firms. We have lived through a period of scandalous accounting reports, reports receiving unqualified opinions by their supposedly independent auditors. Will this period end? Will we clean up the mess?

At this point it is too early to say. We live too close to these events to answer these questions with certainty. I simply will point out that I doubt the enduring explanation that these accounting scandals involved a few isolated renegades. We have had too many scandals for that description to be correct. Something lies within the culture of our corporations that trample on ethical principles whenever possible. For real progress, we need a culture that supports truth telling and full disclosure and the goal of satisfying the information needs of the investment community.

While individuals can act ethically, it often is easier to act ethically when the community supports and encourages good deeds. This is why I think any real reform requires better corporate cultures, cultures that frown on the management of earnings and smile at getting the facts right and telling it like it is.

J. EDWARD KETZ is accounting professor at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Ketz's teaching and research interests focus on financial accounting, accounting information systems, and accounting ethics. He is the author of Hidden Financial Risk, which explores the causes of recent accounting scandals, and columnist of The Accounting Cycle for SmartPros.com.