Posted on 09/22/2004 4:14:27 PM PDT by perfect stranger
I believe we now have conclusive proof that:
(1) Dan Rather is not an honest newsman who was simply duped by extremely clever forgeries; and
(2) We could have won the Vietnam War.
A basic canon of journalism is not to place all your faith in a lunatic stuck on something that happened years ago who hates the target of your story and has been babbling nonsense about him for years. And that's true even if you yourself are a lunatic stuck on something that happened years ago (an on-air paddling from Bush 41) who hates the target of your own story and has been babbling nonsense about him for years, Dan.
CBS' sole source authenticating the forged National Guard documents is Bill Burkett, who's about as sane as Margot Kidder was when they dragged her filthy, toothless butt out of somebody's shrubs a few years back. Burkett has compared Bush to Hitler and Napoleon, and rambles on about Bush's "demonic personality shortcomings." (This would put Burkett on roughly the same page as Al Gore.)
According to USA Today, an interview with Burkett ended when he "suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair" – an exit strategy Dan Rather has been eyeing hungrily all week, I'm sure. Burkett admits to having nervous breakdowns and having been hospitalized for depression.
At a minimum, the viewing public should have been informed that CBS' sole "unimpeachable" source of the forged anti-Bush records was textbook crank Bill Burkett in order to evaluate the information. ("Oh no, not that guy again!") The public would know to use the same skeptical eye it uses to watch the "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" itself.
Whoever forged these documents should not only be criminally prosecuted, but should also have his driver's license taken away for the stupidity of using Microsoft Word to forge 1971 documents.
And yet this was the evidence CBS relied on to accuse a sitting president of a court martial-level offense 50 days before a presidential election.
As of Sept. 20, Dan Rather says he still believes the documents are genuine and says he wants to be the one to break the story if the documents are fake. (Dan might want to attend to that story after his exclusive report on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.) Rather is also eagerly awaiting some other documents Burkett says he has that prove Bush is a brainwashed North Korean spy.
By now, the only possibilities are: (1) Dan Rather knew he was foisting forgeries on the nation to try to change a presidential election or (2) "Kenneth" inflicted some real brain damage when he hit Rather in the head back in 1986.
Liberals keep telling us to "move on" from the CBS scandal – which means we're really onto something. They act surprised and insist this incident was a freak occurrence – an unfortunate mistake in the twilight of a great newsman's career.
To the contrary, such an outrageous fraud was inevitable given the mendacity and outright partisanship of the press.
Burkett didn't come to CBS; CBS found Burkett. Rather's producer, Mary Mapes, called Joe Lockhart at the Kerry campaign and told him he needed to talk to Burkett. Lockhart himself is the apotheosis of the media-DNC complex, moving in and out of Democratic campaigns and jobs with the mainstream media, including at ABC, NBC and CNN.
CBS was attempting to manipulate a presidential election in wartime. What if CBS had used better forgeries? What if – like Bush's 30-year-old DUI charge – the media had waited 72 hours before the election to air this character assassination?
There is one reason CBS couldn't wait until just before the election to put these forgeries on the air: It would be too late. Kerry was crashing and burning – because of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. (Funny that the Swift Boat veterans haven't been able to get on Kerry PR agency CBS News.)
Despite a total blackout on the Swift Boat Veterans in the mainstream media, the Swifties had driven Kerry's poll numbers into the dirt long before the Republican National Convention – proving once again that it's almost impossible for liberals to brainwash people who can read.
Even the New York Times had to stop ignoring the No. 1 book on its own best-seller list, "Unfit for Command," in order to run front-page articles attacking the Swift Boat Veterans.
The "Today" show has given Kitty Kelley a chair next to Katie Couric until Election Day. (It's now Day Seven of Kelley's refusal to produce records concerning charges that she is in the final stages of syphilitic dementia.) At least they're more likely to get the truth in Kitty Kelley's book than in Doug Brinkley's "Tour of Duty." But Katie hasn't had time to interview the Swift Boat veterans.
CBS showcased laughable forgeries obtained from a man literally foaming at the mouth in order to accuse the president of malfeasance. But CBS would never put a single one of the 264 Vietnam veterans on the air to say what they knew about Kerry.
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth show the role of the individual in history. It wasn't Republican strategists who finished Kerry off two months before the election; it was the American people. The Swift Boat veterans came along and kicked Kerry in the shins and no matter how much heat they took, they were brave and wouldn't give up. The veterans who served with Kerry told the truth and the American people listened (as soon as they managed to locate a copy of "Unfit for Command" hidden on one of the back shelves at their local bookstores).
CBS was forced to run a fake story so early in the campaign that it was exposed as a fraud – only because of the Swift Boat vets. These brave men, many of them decorated war heroes, have now not only won the election for Bush, they have ended Dan Rather's career.
It's often said that we never lost a battle in Vietnam, but that the war was lost at home by a seditious media demoralizing the American people. Ironically, the leader of that effort was Rather's predecessor at CBS News, Walter Cronkite, president of the Ho Chi Minh Admiration Society.
It was Cronkite who went on air and lied about the Tet offensive, claiming it was a defeat for the Americans. He told the American people the war was over and we had lost. Ronald Reagan said CBS News officials should have been tried for treason for those broadcasts.
CBS has already lost one war for America. The Swift Boat Vets weren't going to let CBS lose another one.
I, too, am struck by the breath-taking stupidity of CBS and the Kerry campaign, pulling something like this when they were rapidly swirling in the toilet already. It almost seems like divine intervention....
The sweet sound of flushing Rats along with the Johns.
Ann, and Time, have not been kind to Dan Rather.
Neither has USA Today.
Ann is not letting up on Kitty Kelley, either.
This is probably the TIP of the iceberg of what goes on in editorial rooms of newsrooms. Imagine the stories that are NOT pursued.
Has any media outlet ever set a crew to Kenya for Kerry's girlfriend?
The public has now joined the MSM's party and they don't like it because the new people are smarter, faster, and ready to expose the emperor as naked.
She sounds like Peggy Noonan with this quote. Its kind of inspring how some truths stood despite all the attacks from the MSM.........
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth show the role of the individual in history. It wasn't Republican strategists who finished Kerry off two months before the election; it was the American people. The Swift Boat veterans came along and kicked Kerry in the shins and no matter how much heat they took, they were brave and wouldn't give up. The veterans who served with Kerry told the truth and the American people listened
Ann has a mind like a steel trap, and she's a darned good writer to boot. I LOVE it when she cuts liberals down to size (about 1/2")!
Actually, I was hoping for a pic sans pajamas.
As to the reference to Kidder's "toothless butt," it could have been better written, but I am willing to overlook it. Like an errant brush stroke on the Mona Lisa.
Cousin vinnie
Thank God we have Ann on our side as well as the Swifties.
At some time in the eighties, Rather was mugged and beaten on the streets of Manhattn. He said his assailants repeatedly asked 'What's the frequency Kenneth?', a lyric from a song by REM (from the album MONSTER I think).
Now don't go knocking Laura Ingraham! She could share my foxhole (and anything else!) anytime!
Dan was walking out of the cBS building one night and this guy walked up to him and beat him up while saying "What`s the frequency Kenneth?" Everyone thought Dan was lying about it the next day (what a suprise) but a few years later, this guy tried to break into the cBS building causing havoc (I believe he shot someone) and they found he was a schitzo who thought cBS was beaming radio frequencies into his brain.
As always Ann gets right to the point- and does it so well. I have been waiting for someone to say we could have won the Vietnam war- and make the connection to Dan Rather and the liberal media bias.
> Yeah, the "toothless butt" imagery was a little tasteless.
Hmm. Whose fault is that? Who participated in the - uh - Monologues?
Some of you prisses would like Ann to be a bit more PC. I'm hoping she doesn't cave in to you ladies.
The old media perhaps, but that was expected. The NEW media will not let this story die before it's time.
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