I want someone to really look into the dating of this report. They keep throwing out this line that they've been looking for this story five years. How do we know that during that five year period, that Mapes didn't know that this guy had these documents, but that she would not use it because she knew it was too good to be true - she had to suspect they were not really authentic.
If she knew, what propmted her to cross the line and use the documents. Was it a phone call from Dan Rather? Was it a phone call from the Kerry campaing? Think about the time frame. The Swiftees were exacting their pound of flesh. John Kerry was being painted as someone who lied about their war record. Then Kerry had to own up (in a roundabout way) to the fact that he lied on the Senate Floor about his Cambodian Christmas.
The Kerry Campaign was sitting there getting pounded. Dan Rather was seeing that the man who could get George Bush out of the White House was being seriously hurt by the accusations. How do we know that Dan Rather didn't call Mapes and tell her to pull the trigger, to put together the report she had been looking into for five years. Maybe he told her to "find something with impact" and she let herself cross the line to please Mr. Rather.
We need to look at the dates. The dates are very important in proving that this story was politically motivated. I think that someone could argue that the public has the right to know exactly what happened on their airwaves, and be able to see every call between all parties, look at any expense reports or schedules or any other document that could possibly relate to this offense. If we can follow the date trail, we can find out and PROVE what happened.
Only then will the truth be known and Dan Rather laughed into old age as the butt of every anti-media joke told from this day forward.
I want to know why CBS is not trying to find out where the forged documents came from to begin with!!! They don't seem to be the least bit curious. That is STRANGE!
Abu Ghraib broke the same day that the Swift Boat Vets made their first press conference, and they were relegated to no coverage. Whether that was to provide additional cover for the candidate of choice, that remains to be seen.....