Posted on 01/14/2005 10:10:31 AM PST by JohnHuang2
CBS News anchor Dan Rather continues to stand by the content of the documents used in a now-discredited "60 Minutes Wednesday" segment on President Bush's National Guard service, a panel investigating the botched story revealed this week."Rather informed the panel that he still believes the content of the documents is true because 'the facts are right on the money,' and that no one had provided persuasive evidence that the documents were not authentic," the panel's 224-page report said. Continues...
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Rather Saves Job; fall gals take rap
So, after killing half the trees in the Pacific Northwest forest to produce their report, probers into RatherGate report that the closer they looked at the documents, the harder it became to dismiss the possibility they were bogus. On a roll, they were also shocked to discover there's bad journalism at CBS (also known as the Dinosaur Channel). After three months hot on the trail of a story that took a few guys in pajamas 3 whole minutes to crack, the sleuthhounds probing Memogate noted that they "were not prepared to brand the Killian documents as an outright forgery," so staffers who aired the Killian documents should be fired. Especially if the staffers are chicks. Capping CBS's finest hour, fired were producer Mary Mapes, who tied Dan Rather to a chair and forced him to air the "60 Minutes" segment at gun-point; senior vice president Betsy West; top deputy Mary Murphy and her boss, Josh Howard. To avoid capture, Rather fled the country, hid somewhere in Sri Lanka for weeks, bravely emerging after learning his underlings took the fall. (According to the report, Rather had no knowledge of wrongdoing -- he was only running the place. The report was titled, CYA.)
Mapes stunned Washington by issuing a statement that she was "terribly disappointed." You get the feeling she wasn't thrilled. Bush knew she'd be fired and did nothing to stop it.
The controversy was sparked after CBS, on the heels of the Republican convention, aired a Fake-But-Accurate piece based on an Unimpeachable Source who lied to CBS which says it was duped by a screwball who claimed to know the answer to the eminently relevant question that ordinary people in Kansas had been losing sleep over: Did Bush skip a flight physical 35 years ago? The Unimpeachable Source is Bill Burkett, who says Bush, when governor, had shipped him to Panama where Bush had secretly produced a wicked virus which wickedly found him and infected him, so obviously this nut had no ax to grind. (He later said he made the whole thing up.) After a media interview last summer, Burkett "suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair" -- like John Kerry did on election night. Richard Thornburgh, one of the probers, told ABC News that Rather "mischaracterized the source, referred to him as 'unimpeachable,' when it's well-known in the background of this particular source was a lot of bias and a lot of reason to pause." This would qualify Burkett as anchor for CBS News.
Approximately sixty seconds after the "60 Minutes" story aired, questions were raised about the memos, with bloggers patiently explaining to Dan Rather that Killian's Microsoft Word Documents were inconsistent with typewriters built during the Ottoman empire. According to the report, Rather says he still believes the story is true and that he would not go ahead with the story knowing what he knows today. "If those memos are fake, I'd like to break that story," says Rather. (Despite tips from 4 million document experts that the memos are fake, Rather is holding the story till it's ready.)
The report also notes that, except for CBS airing stories all year about Bush the Liar, the Fratboy, the Stupid, Lazy, Election-Stealing Mastermind Moron, there's no evidence of anti-Bush bias at CBS. (Bush -- felon, traitor, warmonger . . . but, hey, nothing Personal!) The election-year timing and content of the Bush Guard story was just a coincidence. Mapes put Burkett in contact with Kerry campaign spokes-hack Joe Lockhart -- another coincidence. For weeks, CBS didn't tell viewers -- all 20 of them -- that the documents were faxed by some freakshow in Abilene, and that was a coincidence too. CBS uses a sleazebag with a background of hating Bush as its main source, so probers conclude from this that there was no political bias. (CBS motto: We're not biased -- just incompetent.)
In e-mails to Josh Howard, Mapes writes that "there is some interesting Bush stuff shaking out there right now . . . lots of goodies . . . there is a strong feeling that this time, there is blood in the water" -- more evidence of how wonderfully impartial CBS reporters can be.
The "60 Minutes" segment marked the third time Rather and Mapes had tried to nail Bush on whether he skipped that flight physical. The second time was in '99 when he ran for president as Texas governor. I think the first time was when he ran for student president in High School.
Rather said mistakes were made because he was too pooped after covering the GOP convention and coming up with the scoop of the Century -- a hurricane in Florida. He was too tired to check. (Even covering the GOP convention was exhausting for Rather. He just didn't know who the nominee would be.) Twelve days into Memogate and under fire, Rather insisted the documents were authentic -- still too tired to check. Anyway, the incident was just a third-rate forgery. The L.A. Times quotes one CBS veteran as saying that "Rather's hectic schedule meant that 'he was not as involved as he should have been.'" The workaholic was too busy not doing his job. The CBS veteran, Linda Mason, was appointed Monday to the new position of vice president for "Standards and Practices." If you're a reporter, one standard might be that if someone's story smells like Michael Moore's knickers and that someone foams at the mouth when you whisper 'George Bush' -- those could be two early clues the witness isn't completely reliable. (Now, how did I know that?) But I guess airing a bogus story wasn't Rather's real mistake. He could've labeled it a Documentary and won the People's Choice Award.
The report said that CBS, in airing the segment, relied on shady sources, did sloppy work, rushed to air without vetting, failed to get their facts straight, failed to check sources, failed to follow basic journalistic principles. In other words, just another day at CBS News. The report blames competitive pressures for the rush to air and "myopic zeal". (They feared being scooped by "Weekly World News"!)
To show they take these charges seriously and to repair the damage caused by Dan Rather's work at "60 Minutes", network honchos are punishing him with retirement from the 'Evening News', where he played an Idiot Newsreader, and hiring him full-time for "60 Minutes", where he'll play an Idiot Newsreader. (Al-Jazeera turned him down.)
So, after three months of investigating RatherGate, the panel still can't tell if there's bias at CBS and still can't tell if the documents are fakes and still can't say who fabricated the documents but tells the big bosses to fire the secretaries but keep the guy who's the poster boy for Memogate because he didn't know what was going on all around him because he was too tired to do his job.
In other words, like my headline says: Rather Saves Job; fall gals take the rap
Anyway, that's...
My Two Cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Arse kickin' good stuff ~ thanks JH2!!!
Rather still thinks John Kerry may Ohio, also.
"What is the frequency, Dan?"
Anyway, that's... My Two Cents... "JohnHuang2"
The two cents worth that is always worth a cool million, in my book! Thanks JH2
Dan Rather is the solution.
Dan Rather is not betraying liberal mainstream media -- he is its ultimate fulfillment. He is the promised one. He is everything that is wrong about contemporary journalism. "It is because I say so! Damn the facts."
The best thing is to have him continue in the public eye as a constant embarrassment to all the would-be Dans in every editors' office in the nation. Yes, you really look that way to everybody else.
"Mr. Rather, the Reverend Jesse Jackson will now see you."
Awesome. EXCELLENT job!
When I refer to bias of any sort on any station or newspaper I always refer to the statement as ratherbiased.
Highly paid liar.....plain and simple.
Never happen, of course.
Is that your work? It's great!
Nice!
"Awesome. EXCELLENT job!"
We can thank IncPen for sharing his talent with us!
yes, but look at how he managed to escape the fall... he should have gone down with the ship as well..
i wrote moonves when the story broke before the election and told him that rather should resign.
Bookmarked your link..I thought my need for these was over and had done a favorites file deletion of most of them..I guess we need them for the misinformed forever!
The org chart doesn't always say who holds real power and influence in an organization.
Rather survives, and those immediately above him and below him get the axe.
That shows who really has power at CBS News.
Very well writte, John.
That is hilarious. Very true and fall off the chair funny. That should be published. Thanks for sharing.
Bravo JH2. You should e-mail this one to Moonves, Heywood, Rather. Have a great weekend...
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