CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say

New York Times ^ | 9/20/04 | Jim Rutenberg

[Southack]

"Sounds like they're getting ready to throw Rather off the train."

Well, notice that Ms. Mapes *didn't* accompany Dan Rathers out to Texas yesterday to interview Burkett. They sent Ms. West, instead.

So clearly they have pulled Mapes already, which means that *she* is toast no matter how everything else plays out.

But this brings up Mapes' scandal from 5 years ago.

Back in 1999, Ms. Mapes defied a federal judge (you try that one) by refusing to release the interviews tapes (plural) of the 3 men (among others) convicted and sentenced to death for the dragging death of a Black man in Texas while GWB was Governor there. CBS "negotiated" that only the transcripts, written up by CBS, be given to the judge (you try that one), and the judge then spared her from prison for contempt.

That whole "dragging death" was played up politically when it had no political meaning...and yet there was Ms. Mapes ready to go to jail rather than release those interview tapes.

Why was such a radical feminist like Ms. Mapes prepared to go to jail until the 2000 election was over, rather than release those tapes?

They still haven't been released. What the heck is *in* or on those tapes?!

...And in light of "The Wall Within" and the current Mapes/Rather forgery scandal, shouldn't *someone* be asking for those tapes now?!

The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!

[Squantos]

LOL............Too Cool !

Stay Safe.......Y

[Enchante]

True, true, and he does have a strong streak of paranoia, so he could come to see a lot of his liberal friends as part of "the enemy" if they throw him to the wolves.

Still, even if he goes nuclear I think he'd concentrate on hurting CBS and not on hurting Kerry.... but who knows, he certainly is a loose cannon.

[kcvl]

During the Republican National Convention in New York, Rather got a call from Ben Barnes, a onetime Texas lieutenant governor and veteran Democrat who has known the anchor, a former Houston TV reporter, for 30 years. Barnes said he was ready to say before the cameras that he had pulled strings to get Bush a coveted slot in the Texas Guard in 1968. Mapes had long been urging Barnes to tell his story.

On Friday, Sept. 3, the day after the convention ended, Mapes hit pay dirt. She told Howard her source had given her the documents. Within hours, Mapes began calling around to find independent analysts who could examine the handful of memos said to have been written by Killian. She found one in Dallas, who helped put her in touch with three others.

The next stop was Texas. Rather was in Florida, so CBS chartered a plane to get him to Austin. On Sunday, Sept. 5, he and Mapes interviewed Robert Strong, an administrative assistant in the Texas Guard during Bush's service there. Strong told them the memos were compatible with what he knew of Killian but did not claim to have seen them before. "I cannot recall that Jerry Killian talked about Bush, and am not sure he would have discussed it with me," Strong recently told The Washington Post.

SNIP

Rather said he grew more confident when Mapes began speaking with retired Col. Bobby W. Hodges, Killian's superior in the Guard. Hodges said Killian felt that Bush had been treated too leniently in those days. That was important, in Rather's view, because Hodges remained a staunch supporter of the president. But Hodges later said that he felt "misled" by CBS, that the memos were read to him over the phone and that he believes from discrepancies in the military abbreviations that they are forgeries.

SNIP

After the show, one colleague asked an elated Rather whether he was sure the documents were real. "I have never been more confident of a story in my life," he said.

SNIP

Asked at the time whether there was at least a slight chance that the documents were bogus, Heyward said: "I see no percentage of possibility."

SNIP

CBS executives declined to address news accounts that pinpoint Burkett as the confidential source for the documents but say they weighed the fact that anyone turning over the material would not be a fan of the president. Burkett would not comment on whether he supplied the documents but said by e-mail to The Post that he would "encourage everyone to not cast too many doubts prematurely" on the "60 Minutes" broadcast.

SNIP

Rather said that if the memos were indeed faked, "I'd like to break that story." But whatever the verdict on the memos, he said, critics "can't deny the story."

SNIP

As the days begin to blur for Josh Howard, he embraces the same logic: "So much of this debate has focused on the documents, and no one has really challenged the story. It's been frustrating to us to see all this reduced to a debate over little 'th's."

******

IDIOTS!!!

[SeaBiscuit]

People at the network said it was now possible that officials would open a formal internal inquiry into how it moved forward with the report, which officials now say they are beginning to believe was too flawed to have gone on the air

possible??? beginning to believe??? Incredible!! all SeeBS has is a 86 year old pool secretary claiming she remembers something 30 years ago!! gee whiz, maybe their phony investigation will be completed by the time the election is over, meanwhile they haven't officialy retracted the bogus story.

SeeBS apologize now!!!

[EternalVigilance]

IDIOTS!!!

I tend more towards 'EVIL'

[Proud Conservative2]

"Mr. Rather and others at the network are said to still believe that the sentiment in the memos accurately reflected Mr. Killian's feelings"

This should be under a barf alert!

Rather and others at the network have the audacity to think they knew Mr. Killian's feelings better than his own wife and family ????

This is just going too far! Anyone with an ounce of reasoning should use every tool they have to not only run Rather out of the news business, but make certain he and the others at the network are tarred and feathered first!

This remark just makes me sick! What a bunch of losers! CBS no longer exists in my life and NEVER will again!

[patriciaruth]

. Or instead of using, you know, a regular old standard typewriter, you use a computer

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!

I just love Dubya! He speaks in cryptograms to signal us he's in touch while he "aw shucks" his competition into thinking he's too stupid to tie his own shoes let alone lead a deadly campaign against them.

And his sly skewers just crack us up.

Luvya Dubya!

[endthematrix]

I was redirected from a double posted thread, to find over 200 posts. All I wanted to say was I hope to see an empty anchor chair and a sign on his desk, "Dan has left the building."

[DmBarch]

My read is that Rather and Mapes have lost control of this matter at CBS. Network (the $$ folks) are stepping in to cut their losses and salvage what they can. Ms. Mapes will get her 'golden parachute" for "decades of flawless reporting" and announce she wants to spend more time reconciling with her dad in Seattle. Rather will limp on as a very discredited newsreader until after the election. The public will laugh about "forgeries" everywhere, and that's positive for GW. What remains to be seen if any tie to the DNC and the Kerry campaign will be dug up. That's Pulitizer material.

It is essential that Rather go soon, in the next three weeks. In no way should he be allowed to stay and influence the election. I'm going to write the local station for the heads of Rather, Mapes, and the Pres of the News Division. If not done in the next few weeks - before the election, CBS National News and the local CBS News is never to be seen in my house. There are other places to get that information. If the local NFL team is on CBS, I'll watch that week. I'm not going to tell my wife what soap operas to watch. But when there is a choice, CBS is not the choice. The only way to avoid that and counteract the blatant forgery and bias against the president and honest reporting is to clean house now. Only then will CBS be considered in the future. And I've owned what is now Viacom since Paramount Pictures was part of Gulf & Western.

[piasa]

Libs: "AHA! That proves it! Bush lied! Dan Rather's source used a computer instead of a typewriter and it most certainly wasn't 'productive!'"

[wardaddy]

I have sources both in Texas and Central Park who have been reliable and valuable sources for decades that swear they have witnessed Dan Rather having sex with livestock. I have heard this is not uncommon amongst rural males but perhaps...just perhaps my august sources could be unauthentic or deceitful or even flawed...gravely speaking

Nevertheless, it is my view and the view of others of the same high moral caliber as myself who consider ourselves objective and reliable gator flappers that the INTENT OR SENTIMENT IF YOU WILL OF THESE ALLEGATIONS OF BESTIALITY COMMITTED BY MR. RATHER ACCURATELY REFLECT THE "FEELINGS" OF MY "RESPONSIBLE" SOURCES. THEREFORE MR RATHER. I DEMAND YOU ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!

DO YOU HAVE SEX WITH LIVESTOCK EITHER IN TEXAS OR CENTRAL PARK? I HAVE BEEN TOLD THIS IS TRUE BY FOLKS WHO CLAIM SUCH ALLEGATIONS WHETHER AUTHENTIC OR NOT, ACCURATELY REFLECT THEIR SENTIMENT....SO ANSWER THE QUESTION SIR?

(sarcasm/off)

[sd-joe]

Breaking news. CBS News concludes that the Earth is NOT flat.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

bttt

[gpapa]

Misled? grave doubts about the authenticity of the material?
CYA SEE^BS

[SeaBiscuit]

roflmao!!

[asgardshill]

Between this tantalizing rumor and the fact that the head of Viacom is now selling off stock like a drunken sailor spends money, its been a history-making week.

[The Bandit]

Old News

[Mo1]

"After Tet, General Westmoreland sent Walter Cronkite out to interview me

Thank you Kcvl for posting that .. I had not seen it before

Notice the similarities with what some in the press/media are doing today?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I vote for his using them to achieve his purposes.