The family of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian is justifiably angry at CBS: Commander’s family calls for CBS apology for flawed report.

FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - The son of a late commander in the Texas Air National Guard said Monday that CBS owes his family an apology for airing documents - now believed to be false - that purportedly were of his father criticizing President Bush’s service as a young man in the Guard.

“I’m not surprised,” said Gary Killian of Houston. Earlier in the day, CBS issued a statement saying it was a “mistake, which we deeply regret,” to use four memos that allegedly came from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, a Guard commander over Bush in the early 1970s.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward said in a statement: “Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic … .”

The network also named Bill Burkett, a rancher who lives near Baird, in West Texas, as their source for the memos.

Neither Burkett, a former commander in the Guard, nor his lawyer, David Van Os of San Antonio, returned repeated phone calls Monday. But Burkett acknowledged in an interview with CBS News anchor Dan Rather on Monday night that he misled the network about the source of the documents; he nevertheless defended the truthfulness of the information.

Gary Killian, a Houston businessman who once served in the Guard with his father, said he initially questioned the validity of parts of the memos, then later became convinced they were all fakes.

Killian said he is angry with both CBS and Burkett.

“Do I take it personally? Yes,” he said, adding: “I think, first of all, CBS and Dan Rather owe my deceased father and my family an apology.”

Jerry Killian died of heart failure in 1984.

The younger Killian said CBS should go further that simply calling its reporting flawed. “I don’t accept that this was an innocent mistake. I think it confirms what a lot of people already think: that there is a hidden agenda among some of the media,” Killian said.