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.
OF COURSE it did. Because how many several-years-long probes into Kerry and his many dubious Vietnam claims did CBS do, after all? (For that matter, how many short-term probes did they do?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1513295/posts
I posted a CIA summary here. FRegards....
Good one!
How about, "running dog of the Republican, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy"?
CA....
As though there were any question.
This statement is more telling about Rather than just about any other. The "them" are anybody not within his political hemisphere, namely Republicans.
I am glad Mary Mapes got fired and humiliated by her actions. I live in Oklahoma City and Carol Marin of 60 Minutes was going to do a story on the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. It would have covered information that had not been brought out in the national media about the connection to Middle Eastern terrorists and state sponsored terrorism that was being covered up by the administration of President Clinton. Clinton did not want any state sponsored terrorism on his watch.
David Schippers knew Carol personally and thought highly of her. The feeling was mutual. Schippers wrote the forward to the book, "The Third Terrorist" by Jayna Davis. (See jaynadavis.com) This is the book that details the involvement of an Iraqi member of the Republican Guard in the OKC bombing. The story was vetoed by a producer at 60 Minutes. That producer was none other than Mary Mapes. Mapes is the one that is the political hack with an agenda.
He was vilified for years and Hiss was defended by the liberals, but the proof of Hiss's treason was bullet proof.
Incidentally, William F. Buckley was Chambers' ostracized friend and visited him at his farm right up until Chambers' death. I've always admired Buckley for that kindness and loyalty.
What's that all about???
CA....
Chambers went on to write a best selling book...considered a classic now. It's title is, appropriately enough WHITNESS.
That's WITNESS. (Sorry speller here.)
Below is forged CBS document overlayed by Microsoft Word in default mode......courtesy Little Green Footballs..
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....you go girl...
"Yeah, well maybe, but, uh, that wasn't easy, was it?" ;-)
Your one glance was a more thorough analysis than all of Mary Mapes' experts gave put together, I'll concede that.
No, it was more like exposing the real slimers for the LIARS that they are!
Puh-leeze. Trying to pass these things off as actual memos typed on a Texas Air National Guard base in 1973 is like trying to pass off Plan Nine From Outer Space clips as actual UFO footage.
Now just wait a second. You're telling me that Plan Nine stuff isn't real? ;-)
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