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.
Nah, they're the same thing they've always been, just repackaged. From reading Coulter's book Treason, I found that the communists of the late 40's/early 50's labeled themselves "progressives", just as they do now. I thought the word "progressive" meant that you always coming up with new ideas. Not in the liberal world, though.
The latest Dim to run for my city council is a real progressive. She wants to roll back garbage collection fees because it hurts the poor. She will do this by raising usage fees and imposing a "luxury tax" on alcohol and cigarettes. I guess she thinks the poor don't buy alcohol and cigarettes. Isn't she Progressive?
I did a quick Google search and found that the Verona Papers indicate that indeed there were many Communists in poitions of power during the McCarthy era. But I really couldn't find much on the papers. Could you possibly provide a good link?
"I suppose the logic goes, the first Amendment only protects the Press. Peons are not allowed to talk."
Funny you should say that. There's a radio talk show host up in Oregon who broke the law. He was told by a judge that he needed to calculate the monetary value of his remarks about Oregon's gas tax, that HIS words are contributions with monetary value, while the leftist TV media is NOT told the same thing. According to that judge, we need to pay a fee for informing people now. I hope this reaches the new Supreme Court.
Make a prayer and cross your fingers, friend, because there are also claims that this will extend to the internet as well. A former member of the FEC wrote a book warning people about it. We could be 'contributing' through our posts, rather than exercizing our constitutional rights. If that ruling stands, we will, INDEED, be mere peons.
Well said. Also, look at Dingy Harry Reid...he easily forgets that he is a senator in a RED STATE. And he was one of the rats who voted for Alito in the past. They have to tread carefully, and I LOVE that Bush has them boxed in like this.
BUAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!
"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.'
Includes the following statement:
She also calls one of the co-leaders of that probe, Dick Thornburgh, worse than an "empty suit...He was completely full if it."
Ms. Mapes appears to be a clone of Mr. Rather; both are a little slow on the uptake.
It would have been easier tif I hadn't made a typo in my original post.
Venona papers (or "Venona Project")...not Verona.
Hey, I'm barely awake here!
I don't have a clue what these people would do if there had never been a Senator Joe McCarthy!! It all goes back to him. This woman is nuts, pure and simple.
Two words for you Missy Mopes...er, Mapes: Occam's Razor. In twelve minutes someone was able to produce documents identical to yours: character shape for character shape, superscript for superscript, kern for kern on equipment unavailable at the time. In twelve months all you've come up with are a few examples of typefaces that are SIMILAR, not identical, just similar, to what is in the documents.
Your argument would be strengthened immeasurably were you to reproduce those documents with contemporaneous equipment and describe how it was done. But, despite all the muscle of CBS and all the empathy of the liberal horde, you couldn't, could you? I'll bet money that folks like Michael Moore and George Soros offered private rewards to anyone who could.
When your pants have been yanked down and all the world has seen, I suppose a rest room is as good a place to cry as any.
The truth is that these people just can't help themselves. I am beginning to think it's genetic. They just HAVE to be correct. It's always someone else's fault that they were found out. Liberalism is a sickness, I tell you and we're all paying for this sickness.
Ah, I think we're pretty much beyond morphine by now. Try Thorazine. ;)
Thanks. I went back and did a new Google search for Venona, and now see what you're talking about.
For others like me who are unfamiliar with the Venona Project, it was a joint project of US and UK intelligence agencies that managed to decrypt Soviet correspondence with agents in the US. It revealed that in the post-WWII period the USSR had at least 349 agents in the US. Here's a link to list of identified names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Americans_in_the_Venona_papers
Soembody called her a feminazi over the fake documents story? That doesn't even make sense. Lying again Marypoo?
Apparently, Ms Mapes doesn't know what the frequency is! LOL
I can't wait for challenges to CFR to occur with O'Connor off the court and Alito on. I was in shock someone who use to work for the ACLU could rationalize such an assult on free speech.
"Suspected liberals had become the new 'Communists..."
New? Why does she think this is new? Haven't they always been a deep shade of pink?
First, she's the person in a position of power -- and if 60 Minutes isn't the Power Bully of Television, there is no such thing as a bully. If Mapes has any doubt, let us have a large network show, and we'll give her a computer.
The reason we won was we were telling the truth and she was lying. Citizens at keyboards are David, not Goliath's.
Mapes was taken down for lying and using forged documents. Things she conveniently leaves out of her pity party.
In the old days 60 Minutes could take on any citizen, lie about them and get away with it. Those days are over. And Mapes needs to get over herself. The world has moved on...
The Social Security problems would have been solved forty years ago. I still have my Goldwater/Miller pins.
And is there any mention of THEIR own expert who raised concerns about the documents, but rather than heed her warning, they find another expert.
Thomas Jefferson would be telling us to lock n' load right about now.
It is impossible to verify fax copies of documents are real. What is amazing is the forgeries were so bad you could easily conclude that fax copies were forgeries.
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