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So Take a Full Hour: Mapes Claims Docs Can't Be 'Easily Dismissed' as Forgeries
Editor & Publisher ^

Posted on 11/01/2005 2:48:57 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest

In the upcoming December issue of Vanity Fair, Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer who lost her job after the disputed "60 Minutes II" Bush/National Guard report, writes, "I must answer the bloggers, the babblers and blabbers, and the true believers who have called me everything from 'feminazi' to an 'elitist liberal' to an 'idiot.'

"If I was an idiot, it was for believing in a free press that is able to do its job without fear or favor. ...I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign, because that is what it was: a political campaign."

The December article, not yet generally available, is an excerpt from Mapes' soon-to-be-publihsed book, "Truth and Duty" (St. Martin's) on her career and the episode often called Rathergate. Vanity Fair says Mapes sets out to "answer her critics."

Mapes writes that she had felt the Guard segment was a big success after airing on Sept. 8, 2004, until the following morning at 11 a.m. when she learned that a bunch of "far-right" Web sites were claiming that documents were forged.

That same day about 3 p.m. she recalls staring at the Drudge Report and seeing a big picture of Rather at the top and a headline saying that he was "shaken" and hiding in his office. The phone rang and it was Rather, telling her he'd just heard about the Drudge deadline and he wanted to assure her that he was not "shaken" and was not even in his office.

He signed off with a favorite expression of his: "FEA" for "---- them all."

She writes that what she didn't know at the time was that the attack on the "60 Minutes" piece was just part of the Bushites "sliming" of those who raised questions about the president.

Aftdr detailing the unraveling of the Guard segment, Mapes describes crying her eyes out at an airport bathroom after Rather tells her by phone that CBS was going to apologize for the report and appoint a commitee to investigate what went wrong. Rather also told her to get a lawyer.

Finally, she details how in that probe the question of how "liberal" she was became paramount. She likens it to the days of Sen. Joe McCarthy and charges that it was ironic that the same network that stood up to McCarthy with the Edward R. Murrow broadcasts was now caving in to similar tactics now: "Suspected liberals had become the new 'Communists...What in the world would Edward R. Murrow think of his network now?"

In the end she observes that the outside panel that probed the report and found correct procedures were lacking did not investigate the legitimacy of the documents. She claims that a researcher has since shown her typography on other documents from the period Bush was in the Guard that suggest that the memos she obtained can not be easily dismissed "as being forgeries."

She also calls one of the co-leaders of that probe, Dick Thornburgh, worse than an "empty suit...He was completely full if it."

Throughout the article, Vanity Fair frequently cuts away for bracketed response from others involved in the episode who answer or rebut some of her charges.

At one point, for example, she asserts that CBS News chief Andrew Heyward said that if the bloggers could come up with "lousy analysts" to attack the authenticity of the memos CBS could find its own "lousy analysts." In an e-mail to Vanity Fair, Heyward denied this.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: cbs; mapes; mapesforbrains; marymapes; rather; rathergate
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You know you're in trouble when your defense consists of claiming that the documents can't be 'easily dismissed' as forgeries.

So, what, instead of the 30 minutes it took the blogosphere, it would really require a few hours of work to conclude the docs were fake?

Other than learning that Mary cried and that she thinks Thornburgh is full of it, what do we learn other than that even Mapes herself can't bring herself to claim that the documents are forgeries?

1 posted on 11/01/2005 2:48:58 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

That last sentence in the previous post should read:

"What do we learn other than that even Mapes herself can't bring herself to claim that the documents aren't forgeries?"


2 posted on 11/01/2005 2:49:58 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (read my posts on Today show bias at www.newsbusters.org)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Liberalism is a religion...like Islam.


3 posted on 11/01/2005 2:52:28 AM PST by Loud Mime (Bad Lawmakers = Bad Law = Infinite Lawyers)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Documents were forgeries.

Can't rewrite history like you used to Mary.

Your fired.

Try the red shoes thing. Seemed to work for Maureen.


4 posted on 11/01/2005 2:55:33 AM PST by Eddie01 (I'm coming to the conclusion I'm really not smart enough to post here.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Ya know....if these people had any sense at all, they'd go away and let this thing die. But no....they gotta keep trying to defend their lies.

All the better for us...


5 posted on 11/01/2005 2:55:43 AM PST by abb (Because News Reporting is too important to be left to the Journalists.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Greetings governsleastgovernsbest:

Additional dementia from the dying propaganda wing of the democRAT party...

...Nurse, another 10cc’s of Morphine for the patient.

Cheers,
OLA


6 posted on 11/01/2005 2:56:53 AM PST by OneLoyalAmerican (Even if your mother says she loves you, check it out.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

G'mornin.....I sincerely believe we are witnessing the start of the total meltdown of the left/lib/Dem/MSM cabal.....I can't wait to hear dean next Wednesday, after the GOP wins the state houses in VA and NJ, and all of Arnold's initiatives PASS...yup, let them filabuster Alito..


7 posted on 11/01/2005 2:57:38 AM PST by ken5050
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

"it was a political campaign"

"Sure glad the msm is not a political campaign:). The ONLY way to fight politics, it seems, is with the truth.


8 posted on 11/01/2005 2:58:16 AM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Cry more, Mary. And yes, liberals ARE the new Communists.


9 posted on 11/01/2005 2:58:33 AM PST by Nickname
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
"I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign, because that is what it was: a political campaign."

She underestimated Free Republic. She thought that she could push a lie in the middle of a Presidential campaign and not have any pushback. The times they are a changing.
10 posted on 11/01/2005 2:59:26 AM PST by Ninian Dryhope
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To: abb
they gotta keep trying to defend their lies.

For that matter, she doesn't really ever get around to defending the lies. She can't bring herself to claim the docs are authentic. So what is her book other than a teary confessional?

11 posted on 11/01/2005 2:59:45 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (read my posts on Today show bias at www.newsbusters.org)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest; Buckhead; TankerKC; Howlin; All
"If I was an idiot, it was for believing in a free press that is able to do its job without fear or favor. ...I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign, because that is what it was: a political campaign."

Bravo! Brilliant campaign! Take a bow!

12 posted on 11/01/2005 3:00:27 AM PST by Jim Robinson
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
"...I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign, because that is what it was: a political campaign."

And it was in response to your ham-handed attempt to submarine a political campaign.

I don't think Miss Mapes gets it.

Still.

13 posted on 11/01/2005 3:00:59 AM PST by woofer
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
"Finally, she details how in that probe the question of how "liberal" she was became paramount. She likens it to the days of Sen. Joe McCarthy and charges that it was ironic that the same network that stood up to McCarthy with the Edward R. Murrow broadcasts was now caving in to similar tactics now: "Suspected liberals had become the new 'Communists...What in the world would Edward R. Murrow think of his network now?""

Actually Mary its ironic that you use McCarthy as an example. Mr. McCarthy was right then, just as your detractors are right now.
14 posted on 11/01/2005 3:02:19 AM PST by baystaterebel (http://omphalosgazer.blogspot.com/)
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To: Ninian Dryhope
"I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign."

It was effective and brilliant for one simple reason: it had the truth on its side. If the docs were authentic, even the most brilliant campaign would have failed.

15 posted on 11/01/2005 3:02:32 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (read my posts on Today show bias at www.newsbusters.org)
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To: Ninian Dryhope

Man, if we had the internet and talk radio in 1964, we might well have elected Barry..


16 posted on 11/01/2005 3:02:53 AM PST by ken5050
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

The documents weren't "easily dismissed" as forgeries. They were carefully studied and analyzed and only then were dismissed as forgeries.


17 posted on 11/01/2005 3:03:14 AM PST by jalisco555 ("The right to bear weapons is the right to be free." A. E. Van Vogt)
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To: jalisco555
The documents weren't "easily dismissed" as forgeries. They were carefully studied and analyzed and only then were dismissed as forgeries.

Then again, the forgeries were so blatant that it took no more than about 30 minutes to carefully analyze them and dismiss them as forgeries.

All that was required was to place a modern Word document over the "documents," and when they traced absolutely perfectly . . . bingo!

18 posted on 11/01/2005 3:05:25 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (read my posts on Today show bias at www.newsbusters.org)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Really? Airing such a contrived BS Bush Texas ANG story on national TV in the remaining weeks leading up the November 2004 election wasn't?
19 posted on 11/01/2005 3:05:29 AM PST by BluH2o
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
...I didn't know that the attack on our story was going to be as effective as a brilliantly run national political campaign, because that is what it was: a political campaign."

Really? Airing such a contrived BS Bush Texas ANG story on national TV in the remaining weeks leading up the November 2004 election wasn't?

20 posted on 11/01/2005 3:06:13 AM PST by BluH2o
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