Posted on 09/15/2004 9:05:39 PM PDT by rhmoss
You guys are more up to speed on this than I am, but there is a lot more to this than the documents. Barnes' accusations were the thrust of the story, with the documents as support. Both Rather and Barnes have credibility problems that go well beyond the documents.
To say nothing of Barnes' political leanings, (which supporters disqualified the Swift Vets from airtime on CBS) my understanding is that Rather may be tied politically and financially to Bob Barnes, having hosted at least one fund raiser for him. Rather's daughter is involved in Democrat politics in the same county, as may be his wife, also involving Barnes. I do not have verification, but someone probably does. Barnes' own daughter (OK, so she's a Republican) said not only that he lied, but told her in advance of his plan. Pretty heavy stuff. These connections are important and are available, but not being reported.
In addition, Rather has a history of passing on false reports of major stories. His 'Wall Within' documentary was very influential in painting the Viet Nam vets as out of control psychopaths who routinely committed horrifying atrocities. The problem was, 4 or 5 of the 6 "vets" who formed the basis for the story were impostors. CBS was shown the evidence of the outright lies that they had broadcast, but never acknowledged it. The "documentary" is still being used in educational programs today. This guy has hurt a lot of people.
Ben Barnes.
Ben Barnes is not a credible news source for many reasons. All have been researched. But here are his campaign contributions dating back to the 1990’s to present!
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=TX&last=Barnes&first=Ben&city=&zip=&xst=&next=0
Dan's little source, is completely credible.....NOT!!!!
I'm almost certain that this could have been posted on one of the thousands of other threads on this subject, rather than it's own thread. But, maybe that's just me being cranky.
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