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Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick (60 Minutes/Dan Rather investigation nears another anniversary)
Yahoo News ^ | 12/30/04

Posted on 01/01/2005 8:59:39 AM PST by Libloather

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick
Thu Dec 30, 7:00 PM ET
Ibd

It 's been nearly 3 1/2 months since former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief executive Louis D. Boccardi were named to an independent panel to investigate the "60 Minutes" story that used forged documents to allege Bush shirked his duties when in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1960s and 1970s.

The panel was named Sept. 22, 14 days after the story aired and two days after Rather finally stopped denying that the documents were bogus and admitted the story was a mistake. The probe was supposed to get at how the story came to be.

In most newsrooms, that would take about 14 minutes, not 14 weeks, and those involved would by now have found new employment in the food-service or hospitality industry.

This screw-up, however, must be really complicated. Indeed, Mary Mapes, the story's producer, reportedly delivered a "60-plus-page defense" of the piece to investigators -- as if that's a lot to pore over.

Or is it that CBS thinks last month's announcement that Rather would be stepping down as anchor of CBS Evening News has effectively taken Memogate off the public radar screen?

If so, it should think again. Yes, we realize that holding people responsible for their actions -- think Sandy Berger or George Tenet -- was passe in '04. But CBS' transgressions date back much further than one story or one year.

As we've often said, and as one of its own, Bernard Goldberg, has damningly laid out in two books, CBS' problem is deep-seated political bias. Any investigation that doesn't address that problem will be dismissed -- at least in this newsroom -- as no investigation at all.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 60minutes; anniversary; cbs; dan; documents; election; forged; investigation; nears; rather; rathergate; tick
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...Rather finally stopped denying that the documents were bogus and admitted the story was a mistake.

Rather Dan - the biggest dope in 2004, continuing into 2005! WAY TO GO DAN!

1 posted on 01/01/2005 8:59:41 AM PST by Libloather
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To: Libloather

The last statement I heard him utter was that the authenticity of the documents could not be proven. I don't recall him ever admitting the documents were fakes.


2 posted on 01/01/2005 9:04:39 AM PST by USNBandit (Florida military absentee voter number 537.)
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To: Libloather

dan rather's been doing dan rather for decades and getting by with it.

no, the network did not fire him. why?

because that would make it look like he was responsibile and the network at fault.

in order to avoid that perception, he'll retire later this year.

perception is reality.


3 posted on 01/01/2005 9:05:53 AM PST by ken21 (most things today are either stupid or evil)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: USNBandit

That's exactly right. He has never admitted anything! cBS thinks we're going to forget about it.
They are wrong.


5 posted on 01/01/2005 9:10:19 AM PST by meema
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To: ken21

Amazing that in a building full of newpersons, not one tiny detail of this investigative report has yet to be leaked?


6 posted on 01/01/2005 9:10:24 AM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: Libloather

BTTT


7 posted on 01/01/2005 9:12:10 AM PST by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: blackdog

it's called "solidarity".

whether on the university campus, in hollywood, or inside abcbscnnnbc, everyone knows who everyone is.

no one outside this clique are hired. when someone sees the light, they're booted out.


8 posted on 01/01/2005 9:13:08 AM PST by ken21 (most things today are either stupid or evil)
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To: Libloather

The hell with CBS's investigation I want an arrest by the DOJ


9 posted on 01/01/2005 9:14:47 AM PST by uncbob
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To: Libloather

Independant panel is a joke. Want to get the truth out in less than 60 minutes? All Powell has to do is say on the Friday before the NFL playoffs that all of CBS programing is completely off the air until Viacom produces an honest and truthful report on the incident that satifys the FCC. CBS would have the report out faster than crap through a goose!


10 posted on 01/01/2005 9:15:27 AM PST by Bommer
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To: Libloather

Mary mapes 60 plus page letter explaining herself in a righteous context is one hell of a lot of 'splainin. By nature of circumstance, a 60 page defense of one's actions is a confession. That's why we have a fifth amendment right in the courtroom. Some day that 60 page mess may come home to haunt her. It may migrate from the confines of an employer/employee relationship into a criminal matter and there is not a damn thing she can do to prevent it.


11 posted on 01/01/2005 9:17:45 AM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: Libloather

One of two things is happening. Thornburgh is using that Utah professor as a technical adviser. And CBS is aping government bureaucracy that they adore, with a case of the slows.


12 posted on 01/01/2005 9:18:52 AM PST by Elvis van Foster
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To: blackdog
Amazing that in a building full of newpersons,

Thornburgh/Boccardi know better. And the lawyers for DanCo. learned from the Viet Cong how to sow fear
in the populace.

Not that I watch SNL, but they should start a "Week XX, and still no report on Blather's Blunder..."

13 posted on 01/01/2005 9:19:22 AM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke
CBS's hopes.............

NFL playoff's......

Innauguration complicated with protesters and violence.......

Recounts on everything including wether schoolkids went number one or number two.........

Complete meltdown on Iraqi elections....

Superbowl mixed with rumors of terrorism.

A vice presidential heart attack on Valentines day. The following month long expose' on Viagra and it's dangers will fill the nuwz until Rather departs and the no-need to discuss any report......

And the assasination of Punxatawney Phil by a sharpshooter on February 2nd.

14 posted on 01/01/2005 9:26:49 AM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: Libloather
Don`t expect much.It will be more of the same "mistakes were made,no malicious intent,blah,blah,blah"
Expect a complete whitewash,possibly a low level sacrifice and the equivalent to the most horrible penalty imaginable in the work world,suspension with pay.
15 posted on 01/01/2005 9:30:46 AM PST by carlr
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To: Libloather
Hey, it's a new year, time for a new clock!!!!

Let the countdown begin.

It is a non issue for CBS, they are off the front page. Expect nothing to happen.

16 posted on 01/01/2005 9:35:00 AM PST by SouthTexas
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To: Libloather
Check out this short video commentary on 60 Minutes and the MSM:

http://www.angelfire.com/film/coolcaddy/Crumbling/download.html

These are exciting times. Not only are we witnessing the birth of democracy in places where it was thought to be impossible to exist, but we're also witnessing a historical sea change in the way we get our news, and a breaking free from the tyranny of a handful of powerful networks and print media.
17 posted on 01/01/2005 9:37:09 AM PST by Democracy In Iraq
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To: Libloather

If CBS New had a story about Republicans faking Memos to trash Democrats, they would have a full blown investigation, complete with story in a matter of days. Here, all they have to go down the hall and interview their own employees. They could at least give us something.


18 posted on 01/01/2005 9:42:24 AM PST by fhayek
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To: Libloather

They will definitely release this investigation before Dan leaves. The last thing they want to do is remind him that he ever existed after he's gone.


19 posted on 01/01/2005 9:43:45 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: Libloather
Meanwhile, no one seems to notice that Sandy Berger has gotten off scot-free also.

For the curious:

Like "hopscotch", this word for "without incurring any penalty" has no connection with frugal Scotsmen. In 12th-century England, a "scot" or "sceot" was a municipal tax paid to the local bailiff or sheriff (the word came from an Old Norse cognate of "shoot"/"shot", and meant "money thrown down").

The word "scot-free", which is recorded from the 13th century, referred to someone who succeeded in dodging these taxes. Later, the term was given wider currency when "scot" was used to mean the amount owed by a customer in a tavern: anyone who had a drink on the house went "scot-free". This "scot" was reinforced by the fact that the drinks ordered were "scotched", or marked on a slate, so that the landlord could keep track of how much the customer owed.
20 posted on 01/01/2005 9:45:14 AM PST by Jeff Blogworthy
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