Viacom lie debunked here on Snopes.com
Posted on 09/22/2004 3:11:11 AM PDT by Liz
As we asked yesterday: What did Dan Rather know?
And when did he know it?
And that was even before it was disclosed that CBS News' dubious source for those phony National Guard memos insisted on being put in touch directly with John Kerry's campaign — apparently as a condition for turning over the documents.
As USA Today reported in detail yesterday, CBS producer Mary Mapes arranged for Bill Burkett (who provided the forged documents) to speak with Joe Lockhart, the former Clinton press secretary who's now a top Kerry campaign adviser.
CBS claims hooking Burkett up with Lockhart "was not part of any deal" to get the memos, which producer Mapes had spent five fruitless years in search of.
Burkett, however, insists that the contact was indeed part of an "understanding" — without which he would not turn over the documents.
At this point, neither Burkett nor the network have much standing in the credibility department.
But even taking the network's claim at face value undercuts Rather's claim that using the documents — which he now says he regrets — was "an error that was made . . . in good faith."
Not to mention his insistence that this story was part of the "CBS News tradition of investigate reporting without fear or favoritism."
Simple common sense would have mandated that — faced with a demand by their source to involve the Kerry campaign — Rather and Mapes say flatly, "No way."
But they were so eager to get their hands on what they believed were explosive memos — supposedly proving once and for all that George W. Bush received special treatment in getting into the Air National Guard and then avoiding his full service obligation — that they agreed to anything Burkett wanted.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It just amazes me that there seems to be no investigative journalism going on here. What a feather in the cap of the reporter who comes up with the whole,true story here.
Is this Vallely related to the ex-military (General?) pundit we used to see on TV during the Iraq war? It's not a very common name.
And what about their hero, William Jefferson Clinton? He avoided the service entirely and has hated the military ever since. What hypocrites.
It goes without saying that Lockhart's a liar.......he was Clinton's mouthpiece, after all.
Horrors !
You mean they've become no better than Tabloids!!!!!
John should contact them - not that "they" want the truth...
Ugh, really bad visual. LOL
Viacom lie debunked here on Snopes.com
Just ask John Carlson of 570KVI radio in Settle. He worked with her and had a story on air today about HOW SHE HAS DONE THIS BEFORE! (But I wouldn't expect the mass media to actually be able to root this source out for themselves...)
You heard that too, eh? Almost started a race riot with a "phony" witness.
this was an INTENTIONAL FRAUDcast by an Old Media outlet, like hundreds they have perpetrated before.
All these stories put all the onus for "checking sources before broadcasting" on C___BS. The fact is, in my recollection EVERY MAJOR NEWS SOURCE (Old Media, that is) repeated C___BS's FRAUDcast without themselves checking that it passed the smell test.
ANY of them could have been monitoring FR and the blogs and within HOURS generated a story calling it into question, and within 36 hours have known they were almost certainly fraudlent. Yet, nearly all of them ran stories even TWO DAYS later relying on these FORGERIES. After two-three days, any reporter who was willing to spend six hours of research with FR and the blogs could have, and should have, decreed with certainty that C___BS had perpetrated a Fraud on the American public, AND that the source was either directly tied to the DNC, or that it was closely associated with the DNC.
None of them did so. They are all complicit in the FRAUDcast.
/
But they were so eager to get their hands on what they believed were explosive memos — supposedly proving once and for all that George W. Bush received special treatment in getting into the Air National Guard and then avoiding his full service obligation — that they agreed to anything Burkett wanted.
HA! They were more than willing to hook Burkett up with the DNC - Hell, I bet Mary has Joe Lockhart on speed dial.
What is truly delicious is the whole cabal was brought down by the ravings of the archetypical Moonbat... Burkett.
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