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CBS's Latest Whodunit
Business Week ^ | September 23, 2004 | Business Week

Posted on 09/23/2004 8:46:08 AM PDT by Kiss Me Hardy

Let's play Clue, the engrossing Election 2004 edition. The rules aren't that hard, really. Like the better-known variant featuring Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick or Professor Plum in the conservatory with a lead pipe, it's all about collecting evidence, figuring out whodunit and why. The ending should be very interesting....

(snip)

Start with Dan the Anchorman, who broadcast a story about Top Gun George Bush, the fighter pilot-turned-President and how strings were pulled long ago to keep the young scamp from combat in Southeast Asia. That's where Democrat John "Lieutenant Lurch" Kerry, his rival, now says he was performing secret feats of derring-do, in addition to patrolling the Mekong River as a naval officer....

(snip)

On Sept. 3, with Top Gun's poll numbers rising after a surprisingly effective acceptance speech, Rather's assistant, producer Mary Mapes, announced that she had found Exhibit A, the long-sought documents allegedly penned by former Texas Air National Guard commanding officer Jerry Killian. The docs were long rumored to exist, and she'd been hunting them for five years -- and just when they were needed most, they turned up. Amazing!

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barnes; burkett; demplot; pajamas; rathergate
Interesting to see MSM smelling blood and turning on its own
1 posted on 09/23/2004 8:46:09 AM PDT by Kiss Me Hardy
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To: Kiss Me Hardy

They have to now prove they are not MSM liberal bias or the freepers will go for their bones....


2 posted on 09/23/2004 8:47:29 AM PDT by Gibtx (Wow)
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To: Kiss Me Hardy

Dan Blather


3 posted on 09/23/2004 8:54:43 AM PDT by jesusbug
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To: Kiss Me Hardy
But somehow, since the game of Clue is all about being the first to identify the culprit, the rest of us still have room to speculate. One intriguing clue: Dan's wording of his Sept. 20 apology. He never said the overall thrust of the story, not just the documents, was a fiction. If he had, the journalistic obligation to protect sources would have been abrogated, the network free to pursue those who had misled and embarrassed it. Instead, Dan fudged.

This is the most important point in a clever article. This is why Rather cannot just admit his documents were forged (at least not until after the election). 'Cause then he'd have to reveal his 'unimpeachable sources.' That would drive a stake into the heart of what remains of Kerry's chance to unseat the President.

This just illustrates what a partisan hack Rather really is. He would prefer to be seen a fool by the whole world and possibly be forced to retire in disgrace rather than admit a simple fact that is obvious to anyone who has spent 10 minutes thinking about it. Why? To admit that fact would bring down the house of cards that shields the Kerry campaign from the scandal.

4 posted on 09/23/2004 8:59:14 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: Kiss Me Hardy
THE PJ BATTALION. Now meet Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, who hates Top Gun, because 15 years ago, he came down with a mysterious ailment while serving with the Texas Army National Guard and now blames the Gun clan for denying him adequate medical coverage. He sits at his Texas ranch, posting stories on Internet bulletin boards fulminating about Top Gun's boundless evil to anyone who will listen, which basically means reporters, some of whom turn out to be suckers for a tall tale.

To round out the main players, make the acquaintance of its heroes -- a bunch of Internet bloggers, amateur sleuths who raised an almighty alarm after Dan's scoop hit the airwaves. One of Dan's pals immediately dismissed the bloggers and bulletin-board posters as nebishes "writing in their pajamas." So let's call them what they have taken to calling themselves, the pajamahideen, and a sharper-eyed lot of fanatics you would be hard-pressed to find. Some don't even like Top Gun all that much, but they do care a lot about getting the facts straight, which is a terrific thing because Dan the Anchorman clearly didn't give that enough thought from the get-go...

Fortunately for us Clue fans, the pajamahideen, major news organizations, and CBS's own outside investigators are now on the case.

One of the BETTER article assessments I've read. A must read (the whole thing)!

Way to go, Agenda Jammers!

5 posted on 09/23/2004 9:03:28 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: ModelBreaker

PAPER CHASE. Now it really gets interesting. According to Howard Kurtz, Michael Dobbs, and James V. Grimaldi of The Washington Post, Barnes called Dan during the Republican Convention in New York and said he was prepared to go public. Two days later, the other missing piece conveniently fell into place....

Dan the man and Barnes should be questioned about this conversation under oath.

Collusion.


6 posted on 09/23/2004 9:04:45 AM PDT by fooman (Get real with Kim Jung Mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: Kiss Me Hardy
That's where Democrat John "Lieutenant Lurch" Kerry

Alright. We need a vote: Does he look more like "Lt. Lurch" or "Major Munster"? Freep my poll.

7 posted on 09/23/2004 9:04:53 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: Kiss Me Hardy

The touch of humor made it a great read.


8 posted on 09/23/2004 9:10:25 AM PDT by GailA ( hanoi john, I'm for the death penalty for terrorist, before I impose a moratorium on it.)
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To: Kiss Me Hardy

9 posted on 09/23/2004 9:14:33 AM PDT by conservativecorner
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To: Kiss Me Hardy

Thanks for sharing. Have forwarded to others in my address book who're interested.


10 posted on 09/23/2004 9:19:09 AM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: Colofornian
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, who hates Top Gun, because 15 years ago, he came down with a mysterious ailment while serving with the Texas Army National Guard.

One of the rare articles that states Burkett was in the Army National Guard, instead of trying to infer the Air Guard, by just saying Burkett served in the National Guard or was a Guardsman.

11 posted on 09/23/2004 9:38:21 AM PDT by NavySEAL F-16 (Proud to be a Reagan Republican)
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To: GailA

I google for this guy's stuff regularly. He can be very funny while being dead serious.


12 posted on 09/23/2004 12:34:47 PM PDT by Kiss Me Hardy
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To: conservativecorner

13 posted on 09/23/2004 12:42:24 PM PDT by brewcrew
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To: Kiss Me Hardy

Why would Burkett set up his old friend George Conn to be the fall guy?

Burkett recanted that Conn was the source, after Conn was contacted by the press and denied any knowledge.

After the Conn fingering, Burkett comes up with Lucy Ramirez, whom he said he was trying to protect. But he also states he has no knowledge of whom Lucy Ramirez is!

Why go to the mat to protect an unknown?

Some options:

a) Burkett did it and made up a name. Possible, but he would have done this years ago if he had the sophistication. Also, he knows the Memorandum format is not correct, so he would not have typed that.

b) Conn did it. But Conn is a DoD civil servant and would be fired for getting involved in a campaign, so Burkett changed his story after pleading from Conn not to finger him.

c) Someone else did it. Who would Burkett go to the lengths of defending, even if it meant first pointing the finger at a good friend that could lose a job? Only answer is the Kerry campaign. He cares more about unseating Bush than anything else, and would not finger the Kerry camp since he knows it would crush Kerry.

So who in the Kerry camp/DNC has Burkett been working with over the years? Look to Bob Ferkit and Zack Exley.


14 posted on 09/23/2004 3:02:07 PM PDT by Evilscott
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