Free Republic

Disgraced CBS newsman Dan Rather accused the White House on Saturday of trying to "smear" him after he used forged documents in a bid to discredit President Bush's National Guard record. Speaking at a media forum in New York City, Rather insisted, "I don't have a political agenda." "I'm an independent journalist," he claimed, in quotes picked up by the Washington Post. Rather pledged that he wouldn't give in to his critics, whom he said were themselves guilty of "bias."The embattled newsman denied reports that he would step down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" anytime soon, vowing to...

Thursday, September 23, 2004 See the B.S.? Posted: September 23, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Craige McMillan © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com "How this went so horribly wrong is hard to understand."– Jeff Fager, CBS producer Oh, is it really, Mr. Fager? Of course, a lot depends on what the meaning of the word "wrong" is, doesn't it? By "wrong" do you mean how CBS' heretofore high journalistic standards were – unbeknownst to the staff and management, of course, and only this one time – circumvented by Mary Mapes and her merry band of feminists? By "wrong" do you mean that – horror of horrors...

September 22, 2004 -- The "60 Minutes" producer on CBS's story that used phony National Guard documents is the subject of an internal investigation for arranging contact between the network's source and a top aide to John Kerry, officials said yesterday. It is believed that veteran producer Mary Mapes facilitated a phone call between Bill Burkett, a former Texas Army National Guard officer who supplied the Guard documents to CBS, and Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart. The move would be a clear breach of ethics that could cost Mapes her job. [snip]Lee said the general managers of CBS stations across the...

As headlines read "Triumph of the bloggers" and Reuters posits that American journalism may never be the same, a media watchdog and conservative web group are leading protests today outside CBS' Washington headquarters. The event led by Accuracy in Media and Free Republic comes the day after anchor Dan Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heyward issued statements saying they no longer will defend the authenticity of documents used in a Sept. 8 "60 Minutes II" report that raised questions about President Bush's National Guard service. Free Republic began as a staunchly conservative web community but has been drawing a...

Posted on Mon, Sep. 20, 2004 Text of statements by CBS News President Andrew Heyward and anchor Dan Rather Associated Press Statement by CBS News President Andrew Heyward and Dan Rather about the authenticity of documents used to support a "60 Minutes" story that questioned President Bush's Vietnam War-era National Guard service: Heyward: "60 Minutes Wednesday" had full confidence in the original report or it would not have aired. However, in the wake of serious and disturbing questions that came up after the broadcast, CBS News has done extensive additional reporting in an effort to confirm the documents' authenticity. That...

I'll start out with mine.

WHAT'S NEW ========== Burkett Calls for 'Blood,' Says He Contacted Dem. Sen. Cleland --RatherBiased.com has obtained every message typed by former National Guardsman Bill Burkett in the past year before Memogate on the the Yahoo Texas Democratic message groups. One of the lists is comprised of 62 messages and 43 Word pages. Fortunately, here they are easily searchable on the same HTML page and numbered. They are contained here and here . We provide some of the highlights from the TexasDemocrat2 group, but there are many, many more notable "red flags" that can be searched out. Rather's Memogate broke on...

THE ISSUE: Documents about Bush's military service, aired by CBS. *** Let's get to the bottom line on "Memogate": Dan Rather and CBS had an agenda in running the story ("Bad Week at Black Rock," Editorial, Sept. 17). Consequently, any admission that the documents are fake would also amount to a confession that they had an agenda in the first place. Hence, the stonewalling. The issues of bias and credibility cannot be separated. The existence of the former led to the absence of the latter. Philip Corso Manhattan ***** Reporters have gone to prison rather than give up their sources....

NEW YORK — Early morning Sept. 11, a poster on the conservative Free Republic website exulted, "[A]ll of us can say we were there when a few people from Free Republic kicked CBS and Kerry ass." The John Kerry part may or may not come to pass, but there is little doubt that a few people using their computers certainly gave CBS News and anchor Dan Rather a beating. Right-wing blogs — "blog" is short for web log — and forums such as Power Line, Little Green Footballs and Free Republic were the first to question the authenticity of four...

Although Free Republic isn't credited in this article, it is a good recap of RatherGate. -------- Week of September 20, 2004Media names Burkett as source of forged Bush memos. Burkett also linked through Veterans for Peace to Tides Foundation. That link ties Burkett to Kerry.Newsweek was the first mainstream mass circulation publication to identify a disgruntled former Texas National Guardsman, Lt. Col. Bill Burkett as the source of the forged Bush memos. After Newsweek named Burkett, several other publications including the Washington Post, New York Times and Washington Times named him as the elusive source of the memos. Newsweek revealed...

Daily Telegram Editor in Chief MEMO TO: Dan Rather SUBJECT: "Rathergate" Tough week, huh, Dan? Newspaper editors and reporters make mistakes too. Heck, this week we reran a traffic accident brief on the front page Friday because we screwed it up earlier in the week. We didn't do that because we were threatened, or to clear our names -- we did it because it was the best way to help this person correct the public record. Compared to your National Guard memo-mixup, that was nothing. I grimaced as I watched you sitting with Marian Carr Knox, the former secretary of...

<p>End-of-life issues are always difficult for any family, and the once-great news division of a once-great network is critically ill and possibly beyond resuscitation.</p> <p>What is killing the remnants of CBS' credibility is the controversy over documents ''60 Minutes'' obtained that purport to reveal George W. Bush's failure to submit to a physical ''as ordered'' while he was in the Texas Air National Guard. There is also a document asserting that Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, succumbed to pressure from a superior to sugarcoat Bush's performance rating because of his influential father.</p>

AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign Also, a White House official said Saturday that Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously. The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcast a report...

It's probably important to say this up front: This year's presidential election shouldn't be about George W. Bush's four years in the Texas Air National Guard or John F. Kerry's four months in Vietnam. We shouldn't be even talking about these issues in the middle of today's war on terror. For good or ill, the public will judge the Bush on his almost four years as commander-in-chief. And, however heroic or unheroic Kerry's tour of duty in Vietnam may have been, it's hard to discern what his four months of military action has to do with the issues facing us...

Saturday, September 18, 2004 · Last updated 5:42 p.m. PT Radio station fires talk-show host over CBS document flap By PEGGY ANDERSEN ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER SEATTLE -- A radio talk-show host said Saturday he has been fired for criticizing CBS newsman Dan Rather's handling of challenges to the credibility of memos about President Bush's National Guard service. "On the talk show that I host, or hosted, I said I felt Rather should either retire or be forced out over this," said Brian Maloney, whose weekly "The Brian Maloney Show" aired for three years on KIRO-AM Radio, a CBS affiliate here....

<p>September 19, 2004 -- President Bush yesterday defended his National Guard record, saying his military supervisors gave him permission to work on a political campaign while he served in the Air National Guard.</p> <p>Bush questioned the authenticity of documents used by CBS News anchor Dan Rather that accuse him of getting special treatment during his service in the Guard. "There are a lot of questions about the documents and they need to be answered," Bush said."I think what needs to Ÿhappen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created and let the truth come out."</p>

September 19, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — The latest typewriters known to have been in use at the Texas Air National Guard base where George W. Bush was stationed in the early 1970s can't produce the dubious documents CBS News used to paint the president as a duty shirker, trials conducted by The Post show. It seems that only a computer using the Microsoft Word program could produce near-replicas of four documents CBS News anchor Dan Rather claims came from Bush's boss, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. CBS and Rather are standing by the story, saying it's possible the documents were pounded...

It's the last stand of Gunga Dan. But like other messianic types - George Custer comes to mind - Dan Rather is not going down alone. He seems hellbent on taking CBS News with him and damaging the press everywhere. Memogate is now Rathergate. Journalists not yet born will one day hear the story of how the highest flyer in TV news flamed out while chasing a "gotcha" story. Rather, 72, always saw himself as a role model for journalists. But instead of being Revered Elder Statesman, he's sealing his fate as Exhibit A on how not to handle a...