Dan Rather’s Long Goodbye: Who Done It?(Mapes,Smith and Burkett)

NY OBSERVER ^ | 03/09/05 | Joe hagan

[doug from upland]

FReepers have become legendary. FReepers took down an anchor.

[beyond the sea]

no one lied, the memos are real

Dan's tombstone

[beyond the sea]

Mr. Burkett has said that this document and the others he gave CBS were provided on a "stand-alone" basis—meaning he wouldn’t vouch for their authenticity—and under a promise of the utmost secrecy. He had first told Ms. Mapes that the memos had come from a former Guard colleague named George Conn.

LOL. A real con.

;-)

[Calusa]

Wow! Hunter S. Thompson and Dan Rather ride the shark in the same week (or, so). The Times (really) are a-changing!

[Dr. Thorne]

"The road to the White House leads through the Clyde Whataburger" was the group’s joke.

To me this is a flat admission that this entire group had a tacet mission to install Kerry as the next president. These people spend their lives breaking their arms patting themselves on the back only to be revealed as villainous partisans. Of course, they don't understand the "villainous" part as they are so cock-sure that their motivations are the noble and correct ones: To remove from office a president with whom they disagree.

To them, the end justifies the means. May fools like these always be exposed and expelled from the public forum.

[aspiring.hillbilly]

If he wasnt such a liberal-anus rim licker he might of lasted long enough to have a graceful exit. As it is his doctrinaire leftism served him no goood..

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

May fools like these always be exposed and expelled from the public forum.

Though, in fact, they deserve much worse. Much worse indeed.

[Maria S]

Massive amount of time, money, and network airtime to prove the truth of these memos! Nothing but scorn (and very little airtime) toward swiftboat vets.

[EllaMinnow]

That Whataburger line really says it all in a nutshell. Add this one to it:

In the late October tape, Mr. Rigler suggested that CBS News was only interested in the documents if they could get them before the Presidential election. After Nov. 2, he said, his services would no longer be needed.

and it shows, beyond a reasonable doubt, that CBS was attempting to fix a presidential election.

[FlipWilson]

Quote:

"In any case, Mr. Rigler went on to say that interviews with former National Guardsmen were leading him to believe the truth of the documents, if not their authenticity.

"It was so well known for years at Camp Avery about Bush and his failure to serve in the Texas Air National Guard," he said, referring to the base where Mr. Bush had been stationed in the early 1970’s. "It was just so very, very common. You know, he didn’t even show up out there during his whole eight-year tenure as governor and commander in chief of the Texas Air National Guard—not once did he go to Camp Avery. So most people just sort of looked at him as a draft dodger. They didn’t hold him in very high regard at all."

He continued: "The story—and I’m talking to some people at Camp Avery—the story about the files, the non-service, the memos, stuff like that, had floated around for years. For that reason, it makes you think it’s likely true"."

Yes, and so the story goes. The problem is, nobody can actually prove it IS true. Hence why there is this scandal. Someone wanted to get this accepted "truth" out so badly, that they accepted the memos as being authentic. Afterall, they merely reflect that which is common knowledge, i.e. Bush the draft dodger.

I just have to wonder if CBS ever took the other approach, namely, to ask if perhaps the accepted "truth" was not true at all? Aren't journalists supposed to be skeptical? I bet if the shoe were on the other foot and this was a story about the Dem nominee skipping out on his/her National Guard service, the MSM would have approached it with doubt.

Oh well, Dan is done. Now lets see how much time elapses before Mr. Jennings steps in the same dog doo as Dan. tick tick tick tick.

[sr4402]

This article doesn't help answer my questions.

What did Dan Rather know and when did he know it?

[An Old Marine]

"no one really seemed to be interested in the truth."

Pretty well covers the media's whole attitude these days.

[woofie]

Rove set em up ...I have the documents to prove it

[carola]

Either Mr. Burkett created the documents or someone gave them to him. If someone gave them to him, then they could have been created by any number of entities, including an anonymous Bush hater, the Texas Democrat Party, the Kerry Campaign or Dan Rather's daughter. Why isn't there some kind of official investigation to find out who (besides Dan Rather) tried to sabotage President Bush's campaign?

[kittymyrib]

Burkett got one thing right...the Thornburg panel was definitely a "corporate damage-control plan." The tip off was their finding that there was no political bias at CBS! Even the old execs at CBS have said the slanting of the news there was blatant.
Wonder when the NYObserver will quit beating the dead horse story of the President's TANG service?

[razorback-bert]

Mr. Smith began filling the briefcase with dozens of 90-minute microcassettes recording his telephone discussions with everyone he spoke to about the memo scandal.

Tape, we got tape.

Roll tape!

[Western Phil]

These people need to read some banned literature - the ten commandments. There is one in there that says "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor." If they can't figure out what that means, they should look up Luther's explaination and study it for a few minutes.

[NewYorker]

"It was so well known for years at Camp Avery about Bush and his failure to serve in the Texas Air National Guard," he said, referring to the base where Mr. Bush had been stationed in the early 1970’s.

So where did he learn to fly a fighter jet?

Too bad CBS didn't spend their time and $$$ investigating Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia.