Mary Mapes: In Defense Of Dan Rather

Yahoo ^ | Mary Mapes

[Jonah Johansen]

You always wonder who the audience is for these rants.

The universe of people who could be persuaded that the memos were not forgeries and that CBS tilts Republican is a subset of reliable Democratic voters. This isn't just preaching to the choir, it is preaching to the choir director because at least half the choir don't believe you.

If the purpose of this article is to give the Jonathan Alter's, Katrina Von Hugivesadamn's and other hard leftists debating points to use, great because they will make fools of themselves if they do.
The best I can tell is this kind of article falls in the category of myth patching. Since a myth requires no contradictions or holes, every fact that brings the myth in to question must have a story to explain the apparent hole or contradiction.

[Dont Mention the War]

That is just not true, no matter how many times Page Six or the Washington Times or some bitter conservative blogger repeats it.

How can we be bitter? We won the election Mapes and Rather tried to steal for Kerry, we got Rather retired, and we got Mapes fired. We're celebratory.

And Mapes is projecting.

[Restorer]

With all due respect for the lady's "arguments," those who present evidence, such as documents, must validate their accuracy. It is not up to the accused, or anybody else, to disprove them.

I thought it was funny how she attempts to seque from discussing the legitimacy of the documents back into a discussion of the story they were supposed to document. Never mind the fact that my evidence is obviously falsified, let's talk about the seriousness of the charges.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

[6SJ7]

As for document analysis, it is a mind-numbing and arcane discipline...

When you pull the string on the Mary Mapes doll it says, "Fonts are hard!".

[martin_fierro]

[Crawdad]

Dan Rather = Little Lord 'Font'leroy.

[white trash redneck]

What's the frequency, Mary?

[The Blitherer]

It is funny how awful it is that a 'activist Republican lawyer' should automatically be dismissed no matter how persuasive his arguments were

Ad Hominem arguements- its what the Liberals excel at.

[MindBender26]

>What's the frequency, Mary?

Well, now that Dan's not seeing her anymore, about once a month courtesy of two Energiser c-cells and a certain discrete device that came in a plain brown wrapper.

:~)

[frithguild]

Tagline says it.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>This lady is obviously off her anti-depressants or she was drunk when she wrote this

Or she was on her antidepressants and drunk when she wrote this.

[Erasmus]

Or in this case,

"Pay no attention to the man behind the Iron Curtain."

[TankerKC]

A few months earlier, I had been fired for my work on a report about George W. Bush's military record.

A few months earlier, I had been fired for my work on a false report about George W. Bush's military record.

That's better.

[steve-b]

The best I can tell is this kind of article falls in the category of myth patching.

Note this sentence:

I don't believe we will know the truth about the memos until after the Bush team is out of office and people with information are no longer afraid to come forward.

Sounds to me like Mapes is hoping to try rewriting history later -- it may be too late to prevent Dubya from being reelected, but it might be possible to make at least a bit of the mud stick to his historical reputation.

[MindBender26]

> (The Freepers moved as a group, like a school of sharks sweeping toward an unaware and unarmed victim)

Yum-yum.

[TankerKC]

That first anonymous analyst (who turned out to be a Republican activist lawyer) raised questions about the memo using only a single shot of a faxed document digitally transmitted to his computer screen. Those kinds of transmissions radically change the way a document looks. His analysis was worthless.

Oh Mary! It was obvious that the memos were fake the moment they flashed on the screen during the report.

[CaliGirlGodHelpMe]

Sounds like Mary is panicking. She must have heard about the "Do Not Resuscitate" order put on her career.

[lowbridge]

There never has been any definitive proof that they were forged or falsified in any way

-SNIP-

the content of the memos was corroborated by people familiar with Bush, his unit and his commander; the dates, times and details intricately matched what we know of the record; and two experienced and respected document analysts, who examined copies that had not been faxed or digitally recreated, concluded that the papers showed every indication of being real

Is that so Mary? Read:

_____________________________

The selected memo is that dated May 4, 1972, wherein the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian orders 1st Lt. Bush to report for a flight physical not later than May 14. This memo is the most expository of the memo forgeries for several reasons. First, while the other five memos may be considered Mr. Killian's memos to self, and thus personal musings never intended for distribution, this particular memo is posited as a direct order to 1st Lt. Bush, mailed to his (wrong) home address. It was used obsessively by CBS and Bush opponents in the campaign as evidence of his refusal to obey a direct order. If any criminal or civil liabilities for fraud or forgery of government documents obtain, they would be most applicable to this document.

So, putting aside the typos, the superscripts, the signatures, the wrong header and address, and all the previously dissected items susceptible to subjective interpretations, how do I prove this memo is a fake? Easy — for the weekend that 1st Lt. Bush was supposedly ordered to report for his physical, May 13-14, 1972, the Ellington Air Guard Base was closed. It was Mother's Day. Except for emergencies, Air Guard units never drilled on Mother's Day; the divorce lawyers would be waiting at the gate.

If George Bush showed up at the clinic that weekend, he would have had to get the key from the gate guard.

The drill weekend for May 1972 was the following weekend, May 20-21. A survey of the pay and flight records of several of the Texas Air Guard members of that period shows no activity for May 13-14, but drill pay vouchers and flights for May 20-21. Guard flight physicals were normally conducted on the drill weekends, because that is the only time all the required clinic personnel were on hand to complete lab work and flight surgeon consultations mandated for aircrew. Does anyone think that Jerry Killian, squadron commander and one of the drill-schedule planners would not know on May 4 that the clinic was closed the next weekend? While CBS, in its rush to judgment, might have missed this fatal flaw in the Burkett memo, its investigative law firm, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP, cannot be excused. Why? Because one of their investigating lawyers was informed of this fact on Nov. 15 and given a list of seven witnesses who worked in the same offices with Jerry Killian every day in 1972. (Disclosure statement: I was the source.) The panel report makes no mention of this, and a canvass of most of the witness list reveals no contact attempt by Kirkpatrick & Lockhart.

CBS paid Kirkpatrick & Lockhart big bucks for this report. As brilliantly explained by Tony Blankley ("Damage Control at Black Rock," his Jan.12 column), if Kirkpatrick & Lockhart's aim was an attorney's protection of its client, intentional ignorance was a good strategy.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050117-100017-7792r.htm

_____________________________

Update 2: In my comments, Peter Nuss points to this LA Times story, which describes Brigadier General Staudt (then a colonel) as having retired in 1972. But the CBS memo dated "18 August 1973" says "Staudt has obviously pressured Hodges more about Bush".

How much pressure could a retiree bring to bear?

http://www.kloognome.com/archives/001112.php

[MindBender26]

I loved the part where she (in the past) claimed the TANG had proportional spacing carbon ribbon Selectric typewriters at squadron level in 1967.

When I cam back from 'Nam second time, had plastic parts in the knee, so ended up as a USAR "adviser" in 71-72.

We considered ourselves lucky to have chalk, slate and a McGuffey's Reader.

(We actually had one fabric ribbon manual typewriter for two battalions. It was an old Remington Rand and the capital "R" was broken off!)

[Cheburashka]

LOL, Mary Mapes is still on the rag about this?
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Why not? It's not like she has a future in television, unless she becomes a worm-eater on Fear Factor.
The only was Mary can see her career is by looking in the rear-view mirror.