Posted on 09/19/2004 4:09:08 AM PDT by beyond the sea
..............In the years that CBS producer Mary Mapes has been pursuing this story, she never contacted Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's secretary, Marian Carr Knox, until after her existence was revealed by the Drudge Report. On 60 Minutes on Wednesday, Knox said that the documents were forgeries, but the content was accurate.
Mapes interviewed Killian's widow Marjorie Connell and his son Gary. Both expressed doubt to the CBS producer that the documents were real. Neither of them have appeared on the network nor even been mentioned in CBS's reporting.
CBS' own experts have moved away from the authenticity of the documents. One of the experts consulted was Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina. She told ABC News that she sent Mapes an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.
She said, "I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story."
If Rather was informed of the doubts, he ignored them, plunging his network into a quagmire. The veteran anchor forged ahead because, as he stated on Wednesday's broadcast, that the charges are so charges are so serious, the evidence of little importance.
His confidence in Mapes may have led him to go with the story, despite the red flags. After all, it was Mapes who brought CBS the Abu Ghraib photos of prisoner abuse and who risked jail by refusing to turn over videotapes of Rather's interview with a man charged in the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas.
But Mapes' father sees a political agenda behind his daughter's work. Don Mapes, 76, was a recent guest on a radio talk show hosted by John Carlson on KVI in Seattle.
He said, "I'm really ashamed of what my daughter has become. She's a typical liberal. She went into journalism with an ax to grind, and that was to promote radical feminism."
He confessed to being disappointed in his daughter's role in the controversy. He said, "When I heard about 60 Minutes, I suspected she would be the producer of the show."
In an interview with Talon News, Don Mapes said his suspicion was because that he believed, "Dan Rather and she have been working on this ever since Bush was elected."
In commenting on the Wednesday's 60 Minutes show, he said, "It was a farce, it was fraud. I'm sorry as a father that my daughter was the producer of it."
His fatherly instinct showed through when he said, "To give her the benefit of the doubt, I believe she has been had."
But he also chastised his daughter for being intellectually dishonest.
He said, "She ought to look closer at George Soros or Michael Moore."
Mary Mapes declined several opportunities to comment for this article.
Mapes father did a difficult thing, he put what he believes to be true above protecting his own family. Perhaps he is raw from her overt liberalism and feminism, I imagine family arguments arose aplenty if this is the case.
He sees the fraudulent documents thru the lens of a father well acquainted with his daughter's political stance.
And he knows that that reporting was heavily weighted and perhaps abusive to the truth because he is so acquainted with this history of his dtr.
Many heroes jump out of this debacle laid upon America at the time we are determining the character of john kerry as we are told to doubt the character of a President we have known for four years.
If CBS and ABC (peter jennings-in the thread running today-was taped several years ago admitting he was raised on anti-Americanism by his own mother's milk), and NBC (Tom Brokaw-during a clinton campaign-seriously asks America if 'character really matters!) and CNN (Wolf Blitzer's breathtaking lack of balanced viewpoints on his program) ...were to all....
actually DISCUSS what kerry did after his four month stint in Vietnam...if they were to disect and DISCUSS the book he wrote back then and published called 'The New Soldier' (a book he later bought back from stores when he ran for congress), a book that can be found on WinterSoldier.com because it costs FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS on Ebay ( and WHO can afford that?)...then....
then maybe they could demonstrate a desire to allow America to know the CHARACTER of John Kerry!
If President Bush had written such a book it would be tattooed upon the entire public via the old mainstream press by now. They know it. We know this.
They will not do it.
They will not ALLOW America to know what john kerry did while STILL IN THE NAVAL RESERVE (oh...did you KNOW he was in the reserves? Of course not.)
They will not tell America of john's trips, while still in our nation's service, to PARIS to meet and greet Viet Cong representatives.
They will NOT TELL of how many in kerry's anti-vietnam war group were later discovered to have NEVER even served in Vietnam.
They will not tell the story of Pritkin who tells of how Kerry begged him and threatened him to LIE about fake torture done to Vietnamese civilians by American military.
They will not tell America of john kerry's total and complete anti-military VOTING RECORD over TWENTY YEARS in the United States Senate.
Nope.
But they will try like hell to make a huge story out about President Bush MAYBE disobeying an order, MAYBE missing a physical and MAYBE not showing up for work in the Guard. Even if it cannot be demonstrated without using fake documents. And oh yeah....they will NEVER MENTION the danger of flying an F102, or the fact that President Bush asked to go to Vietnam while in the guard.
Oh yeah. They will make a story up about this...with GLEE...but will they tell the HUGE REST OF THE STORY ABOUT JOHN KERRY. Hell no.
Heck....THEY DO NOT EVEN CARE THAT JOHN KERRY HAS NOT RELEASED HIS FULL MILITARY RECORDS.
They don't WANT America to know that Bush has...but kerry has NOT.
And why?
Because it does not fit with their anti-American, anti-military, anti-EVERYTHING conservative agenda.
So they cover-up.
Besides....billy klinton, you know the one, the one who DODGED the DRAFT and wrote hateful letters about the military he 'loathed' way back when, made them pros at DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE.
Liberals suffer from a huge defect....inability to understand how much their lies and attempts to distort the news impact a nation that has awakened and smells their propaganda, BIG TIME.
The monopoly is broken. Their own lack of decency blew their house of cards over....now we are about to learn if they have totally sold their souls or can salvage their reputations by taking a look at what they have wrought and make determinations that reflect a desire to present a balanced story line.
Either way, America is getting a first hand look at the political lens these so called networks have used to present their reports.
That is a good thing!
It's called the Republican Party.
Right on.
for documentary/archive purposes,
this was reported on the John Ziegler Show on KFI 640AM in Los Angeles on Friday night.
www.kfi640.com
One of the best posts I've read on fR in some time. Thank you.
btt
"I'm really ashamed of what my daughter has become. She's a typical liberal. She went into journalism with an ax to grind, and that was to promote radical feminism."
.................................
It's incredible how many relatives of key players in this outrage are coming forward calling 'poo poo' on the whole thing.
[Mama's (and Daddies) don't let your babies grow up to be liberals. Keep them out of liberal schools.]
Mapes pop left the family as a drunkard for another drunkard and does not have a place in her life. Mapes is a liberal surrounded by conservatives in her family. She'll even admit that there is only one Republican at CBS...one of the 60 minutes 2 anchors.
Please. I said I was sorry, meaning I took your post wrong. Let's not get into a huff about this. I'm really really really sorry, OK?
I reaaly really accept that you are and all is well here...;)...See #100 for my short take on this delicious Rather come down.
"Dan Rather and she have been working on this ever since Bush was elected."
This implies that neither one of them were duped. I'm sure they saw themselves too elevated to be questioned-- The sheeple not worthy enough of even well-thought-out forgeries.
That's got to break his heart.
I know it's a ways off, but has anyone considered Jim Robinson as Time's Man of the Year?
bump
I don't know, but FR is certainly the website of the year.
I couldn't help myself...
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