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Dan Rather on Bush Memo Story Insists: ‘We Got to the Truth But We Paid a Painful Price’
PJ Media ^ | 10/19/2015 | Nicholas Ballasy

Posted on 10/19/2015 9:07:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

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Former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather said 60 Minutes “got to the truth” in 2004 but paid a “painful price” for the story on former President George W. Bush’s National Guard service that aired before the 2004 presidential election.

Aside from the authenticity of the memos, Rather said the “basic story” remains true today.

“One, did former President Bush when in his troubled youth, did he use his father’s influence to get into the Air National Guard as a way of avoiding Vietnam? That’s a fact. Fact two: Once he got in the Air National Guard after performing well, in some ways, very well, disappeared for a year, nobody disappeared for a year, now those are facts,” Rather said at the Washington premiere of Truth, a film based on a book written about the controversial 60 Minutes segment that aired in 2004.

“Everybody is entitled to their opinion but they aren’t entitled to their own facts. The reason this film is called Truth is we got to the truth but we paid a painful price for it,” he added.

The broadcast included documents that were not authenticated by forensic experts, which ultimately led to the dismissal of the staff that worked on the story as well as the firing of producer Mary Mapes. The fallout is referred to as the “Killian documents controversy” – after Lieutenant Colonel Killian, Bush’s superior in the National Guard, whose name appears on the documents.

Robert Redford portrays Rather in the film, which opened in theaters on Oct. 16. The movie is based on Mapes’ book titled Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power.

Rather pointed out that the film is not only about the 60 Minutes segment itself.

“It uses it as a method of telling the story of what’s happened to the news, why it’s happened, how it happened, why you should care about it and it also has a resonance of going forward – what kind of journalism can we have in the new digital era?” he said.

The film’s director, James Vanderbilt, was asked why he decided to release the film more than 10 years after the controversial story was broadcast.

Vanderbilt said he was working on the film and off for about 8 years.

“The thing we found when we tried to put it together the first time in 2007 was, honestly, enough time hadn’t passed from it and so people kept looking at from a very politicized lens when they would read the screenplay, and the movie isn’t really about that,” he said.

“The film is about journalism and the film is about these characters and what they go through trying to put the story together and nobody at the time could divorce themselves from what they perceived to be the politics behind it,” he added.

Rather was asked if he thought it was the right time for the release.

“I do think this film, the story, which is a fascinating multi-layered story about media, big corporations and their political allies, propaganda, betrayal, it’s a really good story and with a cast like this, look at this cast, not just Cate Blanchett or Robert Redford, it’s an all-star cast, it’s a good story,” Rather responded.

Rather also said the “media cosmos” is “so much larger” and “more fragmented” compared to 2004.

“This is a good time to revisit what happened, why it happened, how it happened and why anybody should care because it resonates today. The question is, what’s happened to the news? I think at its best level this film deals with this question,” he said.

“It’s a question of what kind of journalism do we want and that’s a great deal of what Truth – this film – is about. We need a new broader, looking-forward discussion that with this new exploding universe of media and press – what kind of journalism do we want in this country and especially do we want hard-grilling, deep-digging investigative journalism which can’t be perfect, it’s never perfect, do we want it or not and if not, then what kind of country do we expect to have?”

Rather sued CBS in 2006 for $70 million after he left the company and the lawsuit was eventually dismissed. PJ Media asked Rather if he is satisfied with the outcome.

“Filing the lawsuit was never about the money. The lawsuit was about two things: number one, I wanted to know what happened, what really happened,” he said, adding that the lawsuit was the only way to figure it out.

Rather also explained CBS quietly tried to erase him from their history despite his 44 years with the company.

“They were trying to airbrush me out of their history, which, I said to myself, even if I lose, I have to fight it so I did. Now, we eventually lost in the appeals court, not on the merits of what we discovered, but it was on a legal matter of whether we had the right to sue CBS, but that’s a long way from the film,” he said.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: danrather; fakememo; georgewbush; truth
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Yes. Yes it was.


41 posted on 10/19/2015 11:00:34 AM PDT by WayneS (Yeah, it's probably sarcasm...)
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To: kiltie65; All

A ‘D’ student? Source, please


42 posted on 10/19/2015 11:09:19 AM PDT by notdownwidems (Washington DC has become the enemy of free people everywhere)
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To: SeekAndFind
Aside from the authenticity of the memos, Rather said the “basic story” remains true today.

In a free and rational society,the accuser has the burden of proof. You failed in that task.

43 posted on 10/19/2015 11:18:59 AM PDT by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: jwalsh07

44 posted on 10/19/2015 11:20:36 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Ok. We won't call them 'Anchor Babies'. From now on, we shall call them 'Fetal Grappling Hooks'.)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

A leftist military historian once told me that George Bush faced absolutely no chance of action in Vietnam because the F-102 on which he trained never saw service in that war. I made a couple of phone calls and did five minutes of research to refute his claim. That was eight or ten years ago. To this day, he refuses to acknowledge that he was wrong.


45 posted on 10/19/2015 11:56:56 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: WayneS; SeekAndFind

Anyway, Ken Bentsen, the son of 1970 Texas Democrat US Senate nominee and George H. W. Bush’s 1970 general election opponent, Lloyd Bentsen, was in the same Air National Guard unit! Was Lloyd trying pull strings to keep his son out of Vietnam?


46 posted on 10/19/2015 12:11:32 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.)
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To: jwalsh07

I don’t think so, we are not as stupid as you think.


47 posted on 10/19/2015 12:11:58 PM PDT by erkelly
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To: SeekAndFind

What kind of chemically treated weed are these lying dipshitz smoking?


48 posted on 10/19/2015 12:15:13 PM PDT by Lion Den Dan
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To: kiltie65

George W. Bush made ONE D in college, a 69 in astronomy.

He had better grades in college than either John Kerry or Al Gore.

According to members of his study group at Harvard, W was one of the leaders of the group.

An analysis of Kerry’s Navy aptitude test showed that Bush had a higher IQ than Kerry. who blamed his lackluster performance on drinking.

According to records and the group’s commander, there were several openings when W joined the ANG to fly the F-102, known as one of the most dangerous planes to fly in the AF.

His commander listed him as ‘an excellent pilot.”

Both his commander and his wingman/roommate said W (and the roommate) volunteered for Vietnam, but were turned down due to lack of flying hours, and the fact things were winding down as far as pilots over there.


49 posted on 10/19/2015 12:33:24 PM PDT by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Where does Trump stand on this?


50 posted on 10/19/2015 12:35:13 PM PDT by Lisbon1940 (No full-term governors)
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To: SeekAndFind

Most people realized that this guy manufactured many of his stories with slant, fabrications, manipulations and the like for most of his career. He was putting out what the left wanted and it always slid by.

Now he is shown for the propagandist that he always was and they can’t stand it. They have to get someone to make a movie pretending he didn’t lie and fabricate. LOL.


51 posted on 10/19/2015 1:12:01 PM PDT by KC Burke (Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam)
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To: MrEdd

When did you stop beating MrsEdd?


52 posted on 10/19/2015 1:41:30 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Rush: “Liberalism is a mental disorder”
It sure is!


53 posted on 10/19/2015 1:53:31 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: minnesota_bound
Not sure that Rush said that. I do n=know that this guy wrote a book with that title:


54 posted on 10/19/2015 1:57:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I stand corrected.


55 posted on 10/19/2015 2:22:05 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: kiltie65
To get into the Air Guard in those times, and to get a pilot’s slot to boot
To get into the Guard, generally, was not a gimme - but there were exceptions for those who applied for, and qualified for, particular specialties. Especially fighter pilot. Being a pilot trainee in the Guard was, by all reports essentially to be on active duty for a year or more. Because you’re useless until you have a real competency. So getting in as a pilot trainee wasn’t necessarily something it took pull to get. People weren’t lined up around the block applying for that. Besides, you could get killed in an operational accident right there in Texas, without going to combat.

Meanwhile, Kerry was a year earlier than Bush, and it’s not known whether he actually volunteered for active duty. And it’s pretty clear that he got out of Vietnam ASAP.

In any event, by the time the Burkett “memos” are dated, the Air Force was pulling pilots back from Vietnam - leading to a glut of veteran aviators wanting flying time in the Guard, at the very time that the plane Bush was qualified to fly was being phased out of the Guard. At that point Bush was not an asset to the Guard, and the Guard was happy to allow Bush to drop out - which he was happy to do because he wasn’t going to get any flying time.


56 posted on 10/19/2015 7:32:34 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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