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Something to Yak About - Gillespie on Phony Docs: 'Was a Crime Committed? I Think So' Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie laid it on the line Wednesday, telling reporters he thinks criminal activity is behind the bogus documents used as the peg for a Sept. 8 CBS News report smearing the president. "Was a crime committed? I believe so," said Gillespie. "Obviously, forgery is involved. But the Texas Legal Code also says it is a third degree felony if one 'makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent that...

When "60 Minutes" producer Mary Mapes set up contacts between the source who gave her forged documents on President Bush's military record and top Kerry campaign strategist Joe Lockhart, it wasn't the first time she had violated the most basic journalistic rules. Just four years ago, Mapes was accused of concocting a scheme to help secretly pass information between convicted white supremacist Peter Langan and another federal prisoner at a Colorado penitentiary, a violation of federal regulations. In a Nov. 20, 2001, letter to Mapes and her boss, Jeff Fager, J.E. Gunja, warden at the federal penitentiary at Florence, Colorado,...

The jig is up. The game is over. CBS tried to energize the country into voting against President Bush by highlighting forged documents it said would prove Bush's failure to serve honorably in the Texas Air National Guard. The smoking gun went up in smoke. Once caught, CBS and Dan Rather could have responded with a simple apology. Instead, they went ballistic -- and now must pay the price for their defiance. For more than a week, Dan Rather responded like a cornered politician, blaming a vast right-wing conspiracy of "partisan political activists" for unfairly trying to change the subject...

Sticking it to CBS and Kerry The Drudge Report claims that Bush officials want CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer removed as the moderator for the final (Oct. 13th) Presidential debate. If true, this would appear to be a clever move to keep the story about the CBS forged document scandal in the public eye, while simultaneously punishing CBS for it's biased and shoddy journalism. But characterizing it as merely a “clever move” misses the underlying genius. It would be a BRILLIANT political move, simultaneously skewering CBS and the Kerry campaign. Let's look ahead and see why. There are only three...

Caption & Credit Line (Photo Taken October 30, 2003): The Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over™ marketing campaign makes a splash in New York City with a Times Square electronic billboard, located on 43rd Avenue between Broadway and 7th Avenue. The Philadelphia message will be seen on the NBC Astrovision By Panasonic Times Square Screen seven days a week, six times an hour (every 10 minutes) and 96 times a day, through January 31, 2004. Photo courtesy of GPTMC

Daily Ramblings:The Circus Is In Town ... 09/21/2004No choice but to reprise this for Dan Rather. Sing it loud and try not to choke up:Every moment of existence seems like some dirty trick Happiness can come suddenly and leave just as quick Any minute of the day the bubble could burst Try to make things better for someone, sometimes, You just end up making it a thousand times worseThis whole story and its ever-increasing list of names is beginning to resemble a surrealistic Dylan story song. We've got Bill Burkett, Lucy Ramirez, George Conn (con?! - and he is said...

Was channel surfing and Bill Hemmer and Jeff Greenfield were talking about the CBS fiasco. Greenfield couldn't even mention that Lockhart was the Kerry official who was in contact with Burkett. Hemmer then said it was Lockhart and that he would be on CNN during the 9:00 AM hour.

Considering the people involved in RatherGate - Rather, Mapes, Heyward, Burkett, Barnes, Knox, Lockhart, Cleland - don't they comprise a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy?

Here is the most basic point I find astounding. Burkett told CBS his source was Conn, who is a real person. How could CBS go with the story without verifying with Conn? And then tell the American people they had good sources? Obviously, they did not check the alleged source because Conn knew nothing of this. How can the CBS personell involved still be in their jobs? This doesn't seem to pass the laugh test.I could as easily say I have documents from President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld. Who would take my word before checking with them?And How can the...

In Jonah Goldberg’s column of Sept. 14, he didn’t hold back on how Rathergate made him feel. He said he loves the story so much he would like to hug it and squeeze it and call it George (referencing a line from Bugs Bunny). Those words caused me to consider my feelings over the recent implosion of CBS News. To paraphrase a verse from a children’s song, I love it a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap and I’m talking in my sleep, about the news. So why do conservatives...

( Boston Globe Archives, 2004-09-10 ) THE GLOBE SPOTLIGHT TEAM HAS SCORED ANOTHER BULL'S-EYE WITH ITS REPORT ON GEORGE W. BUSH'S VIOLATION OF HIS CONTRACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT FOR SERVICE IN THE AIR NATIONAL GUARD, AND HIS STAFF'S SUBSEQUENT EGREGIOUS DENIAL AND MISREPRESENTATION OF THE FACTS (PAGE A1, SEPT. 8).

(CNSNews.com) - Hours after CBS News executives apologized for using forged National Guard memos in a "60 Minutes II" segment criticizing President Bush's military service, the Democratic National Committee still cites the documents on its website. As of Monday at 4:15 p.m. the DNC "News" section of the website was still accusing Bush of lying about whether he had received special treatment in order to get into the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s. The DNC site was using a Sept. 9 article in The Washington Post, which referred specifically to the memos. "President Bush failed to carry...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In an enormous blow to its credibility, CBS News on Monday said it had been misled over the authenticity of documents it aired in a story challenging President Bush (news - web sites)'s military service. "Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in a report," CBS News said in a statement. "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret," the network said, adding that it had launched an internal investigation of...

CBS News planned Monday to issue a statement about documents purporting to show President Bush neglected some duties when he was in the National Guard more than 30 years ago. The authenticity of the documents — four memoranda attributed to one of Mr. Bush's Guard commanders, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian — has been under fire since they were described in a Sept. 8 broadcast of 60 Minutes. According to The Washington Post, the network plans to say it was misled about the authenticity of the documents. The New York Times reports that CBS News officials met Sunday evening with anchor...

Much has been made in this election year of the bias demonstrated by the mainstream media for the Liberal ideals of the Democratic party. Finally, the Liberal attack dog they've created has turned back to bite it's owner. In the rush to out-"Bush"Whack the rest, CBS has, at the least, failed to properly investigate a story that has now cast a hurricane cloudbank over there journalistic credibility. At most, many think Dan Rather knew these documents were forgeries and committed fraud by reporting them as genuine. It was bad enough that they didn't back down and apologize when Dan Rather's...

WASHINGTON -- In its rush to broadcast a story besmirching George W. Bush's Vietnam-era war service, CBS News has managed to turn a long-running controversy over the President's lacklustre military career into a public accounting of its own judgment. After watching the network and iconic news anchor Dan Rather squirm for days amid mounting evidence that CBS fell for a hoax when it cited memos indicating that a squadron commander was pressured to "sugar coat" Mr. Bush's performance in the National Guard, the President finally slid in the dagger over the weekend. "There are a lot of questions about the...

According to the Associated Press, Bill Burkett is a broken man, a loose cannon seeking to share "the truth" about President Bush's military record. State and National Democrats, including Max Cleland (whom Burkett claims to have contacted), seem to know little about Burkett. But according to Bill Howell, Dallas County Chair for the Texas Democratic Party 1999-2002, Bill Burkett is not only connected to the Texas Democratic Party - he is a major player in the Texas Democratic Party. As first reported last night,, Bill Burkett is certainly well known within the Texas Democratic Party. Tonight, new documents reveal that...

<p>WASHINGTON — It was the first public allegation that CBS News used forged memos in its report questioning President Bush's National Guard service — a highly technical explanation posted within hours of airtime citing proportional spacing and font styles.</p> <p>But it did not come from an expert in typography or typewriter history as some first thought. Instead, it was the work of Harry MacDougald, an Atlanta lawyer with strong ties to conservative Republican causes and who helped draft the petition urging the Arkansas Supreme Court to disbar President Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Los Angeles Times has found.</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 Saturday, a White House official said 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 on...

  RATHERGATE IS ANOTHER WATERGATE: The NexusSo where are the grand juries, special prosecutors + indictments, anyway? (HEY! Where are the calls for them?) by Mia T, 9.18.04 Bill Burkett, the former Texas National Guard officer who has been caught up in the mystery of how CBS News acquired memos that seem to question President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, unsuccessfully offered information and advice to help the Kerry campaign attack Mr. Bush, according to a posting Mr. Burkett wrote in an e-mail newsletter. "I spent some time on the phone with the Kerry campaign seniors yesterday," Mr. Burkett...