Ousted CBS Producer Mary Mapes Comes Out Swinging

The Washington Post ^ | Novermber 9, 2005 | Howard Kurtz

[Senator Goldwater]

After a year of silence about the biggest scandal in CBS News history, Mary Mapes has plenty to say -- about George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Les Moonves, her father, bloggers, the mainstream press and others who she believes contributed to her downfall. What took her so long? "I was extremely battered," she said in an interview yesterday. "I'd had months and months of having my head kicked around a soccer stadium by much of the Western world. I needed some time to regroup." Mapes is now pushing a book, called "Truth and Duty," about the botched "60 Minutes II" story on Bush's National Guard service that led to her firing. She ladles out plenty of blame but largely defends what she still considers a fair piece of reporting, although an independent panel accused CBS of having "failed miserably" to authenticate the documents before rushing the story to air. "I'm a human being; I do things wrong from the first breath I take in the morning," Mapes said. "I don't in any way feel I am without responsibility in this. . . . I probably shouldn't have been as pliable or as malleable as I was" when her bosses were finalizing the story. "This is a huge shortcoming. I didn't know how to say no. . . . I was trying very hard to please them." She praises Dan Rather as "a tremendously loyal person" and says the story cost him his anchor job. "Dan was betrayed by a number of people, certainly by the company he has gotten up and worked for every morning for 40 years," Mapes said.

[sausageseller]

Despite her career implosion, Mapes hopes to stay in journalism. "It's what I'm good at," she said. "I like making a difference."

Another Ma ha Rushie , " I Told You So"

[ko_kyi]

Mapes obviously doesn't know the first rule of holes.

When you are in one, stop digging.

[Oztrich Boy]

I'd had months and months of having my head kicked around a soccer stadium by much of the Western world

"Hello to the imagery! Very nice. "

[wildandcrazyrussian]

I think she is confusing the "Wetern world" with the Mongols (whose version of polo, which they invented, entailed precisely that) - just as she confuses "journalism" with whatever CBS News does.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Has anyone ever seen Harriet Miers and Mary Mapes in the same room?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

LOL! Twins separated at birth?!

[steve-b]

"Document analysis is a real subjective profession," said Mapes, who still believes the memos are real. "You can find one to say yea or nay on anything."

So if I present a document allegedly written by Kim Il Sung in English (but with the "L"s all replaced by "R"s), I can find a document analyst who will vouch for it?

[nonkultur]

Mary you can redeem yourself. Find out who "Lucy Ramirez" is. Proove that she isn't a figment of Burkett's imagination.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

She says Viacom, CBS's corporate parent, threw her overboard because Chief Executive Sumner Redstone feared regulatory retaliation by the Bush administration.

She should have known not to trust a man with the first name Sumner. On top of that, Sumner should have known that Bush never retaliates though most of us wish he would. More liberal paranoia.

[an amused spectator]

Mapes says he was an abusive alcoholic

Gads! At least he wasn't a barely sane lying stalker who pursued (AND IS STILL PURSUING!) an innocent target for 5 years and more...

[Nancie Drew]

Here is the link to see the clip of her on Good Morning America with Brian Ross:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/

Here are my comments from another thread:

"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."

And an additional thought that was not in my original post. Carol Marin was in New York City on 9-11 and had to run for her life to survive. How ironic!

[mattdono]

Here's an interesting term for Ms. Mapes to consider: delusions.

Definitions of delusions on the Web:

• A firmly held belief with no basis in reality, that is, clinging to a belief even when the evidence shows that it's false.
  www.schizophrenicpen.com/defin.html

• A delusion is commonly defined as a false belief, and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. In psychiatry, the definition is necessarily more precise and implies that the belief is pathological (the result of an illness or illness process).
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusions

• A condition in which the patient has lost touch with reality and experiences hallucinations and misperceptions.
  www.ukhealthcare.uky.edu/patient/glossary/glossary-d.htm

• a perception that is thought to be true by the person experiencing it, although the perception is wrong. There are many types of delusions (ie, delusions of grandeur).
  www.frankfordhospitals.org/healthinfo/adult/mentalhealth/glossary.html

• Delusions are a common symptom of sever forms of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Someone who experiences a delusion hold false beliefs. These false beliefs are not by choice. The person cannot let go of the delusion, even when all the evidence is against the false belief. As a result of the delusion the person is not able to fully function in daily life. There are many types of delusions, some of the common types, with examples, are:
  home.earthlink.net/~krwenger/mhjargon.htm

• delusions are defined as "fixed false beliefs". Examples include a strictly held belief that aliens are inserting thoughts into one's brain or that one's food is being poisoned by the CIA. Delusions are common in schizophrenic disorders.
  www2.med.umich.edu/psychiatry/umdc/defquery.cfm

• Thought disturbances; hallucinations.
  www.birf.info/home/bi-tools/qlinks_d.html

• false belief systems; serious mental disorder in which patient has a false set of beliefs which can include others, self, and events. These false beliefs are held despite strong facts to the contrary. Delusions cause impairment in normal daily living.
  www.psychologyandlaw.com/Definitions.htm

• a delusion is a persistent belief that something is true when there are no facts or evidence supporting the belief. Logic and logical arguments are usually ineffective.
  www.depression-help-center.com/glossary.htm

• Delusions are fixed, false beliefs. They can be bizarre (eg, invisible aliens have entered the room through an electric socket) or nonbizarre (eg, unwarranted jealousy, or the paranoid belief in being persecuted or watched).
  www.alegent.com/body.cfm

• False ideas, sometimes originating in misinterpretation, but firmly believed and strongly maintained in spite of obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. Delusions may be suspicious in nature, for example, "Someone is stealing my checks!"
  coa.kumc.edu/GEC/modules/BehavDisorder/BD-Glossary.htm

[dfwgator]

"And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids."

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

F O R G E R I E S

Manifestly crude, amateurish, embarassing forgeries.

BTW, I like my tagline better.

[N. Theknow]

Has anybody seen the face on this gal? ugh. double bag it.

Paper or plastic?

[jayef]

Yeah . . . and when you're done with that, you can join up with OJ and find Nicole's killer . . . and then you and OJ can join up with Geraldo and find Bigfoot.

[N. Theknow]

Mapes can always go back to playing the harp and "speaking" with a horn.

Wonder why she quit wearing the hat?

[rlmorel]

Heh, I am completely on the same page (my last email was a joke...anything I can do to heighten the Karl Rove paranoia amongst the left...:)

[fml]

Mary you can redeem yourself. Find out who "Lucy Ramirez" is. Proove that she isn't a figment of Burkett's imagination.

Her take is it's up to others to proove it's not true.

[wildbill]

Kurtz trying to reconstruct the story according to liberal mythology and Mape's disordered account.