Posted on 09/27/2005 5:44:14 AM PDT by RatherBiased.com
Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer fired for her role in Memogate, has come out with her new book, Truth and Duty : The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power.
In it she mentions some encouraging words from Dan Rather, offering his support for her in her darkest hour.
I knew I could count on Dan. In tough situations, he became “fightin’ Dan,” someone who told us all to “never back up, never back down, never give up, never give in.” I was glad to hear from him and reassured by his reaction to all of it.Dan told me he was confident in the story and that he was lucky to work with me. He signed off by saying something that had become a shorthand for us over the years: “F-E-A.” That was code for “F---’Em All,” a sentiment that needed to be expressed from time to time in any newsroom. Dan was too much of a gentleman to say the real thing---at least most of the time. But he knew that when I was under deadline or work pressure I was hard put to find any sentence that couldn’t be improved by the liberal use of the “f”-word. At this point, I deeply appreciated the sentiment.
Mapes also claimed that the first criticism of the documents appeared before 60 Minutes had even ended and before the documents were put up on the CBS website. But the forum hosting the criticism was from the West coast, with an earlier timezone.
Mapes also demonstrated what could be a lack of knowledge about just what it was people were criticizing. She referred to "peripheral spacing" appearing on some typewriters, when the actual term was "proportional spacing."
Within a few minutes, I was online visiting Web sites I had never heard of before: Free Republic, Little Green Footballs, Power Line. They were hard-core, politically angry, hyperconservative sites loaded with vitriol about Dan Rather and CBS. Our work was being compared to that of Jayson Blair, the discredited New York Times reporter who had fabricated and plagiarized stories.All these Web sites had extensive write-ups on the documents: on typeface, font style, and peripheral spacing, material that seemed to spring up overnight. It was phenomenal. It had taken our analysts hours of careful work to make comparisons. It seemed that these analysts or commentators---or whatever they were---were coming up with long treatises in minutes. They were all linking to one another, creating an echo chamber of outraged agreement.
I was told that the first posting claiming the documents were fakes had gone up on Free Republic before our broadcast was even off the air! How had the Web site even gotten copies of the documents? We hadn’t put them online until later. That first entry, posted by a longtime Republican political activist lawyer who used the name “Buckhead,” set the tone for what was to come.
There was no analysis of what the documents actually said, no work done to look at the content, no comparison with the official record, no phone calls made to check the facts of the story, nothing beyond a cursory and politically motivated examination of the typeface. That was all they had to attack, but that was enough.
Yep, I skipped that... thanks.
Yup. As are assertions that the investigatory panel was independent. All in keeping with the theme, "SEEBS".
and "homophobic" and "abortion clinic bombers"
Exactly! Sheehan and her cohorts are going to wind up in the liberal dung heap right beside Mapes and Rather.
CBS's analysts didn't authenticate the memos - they weren't asked to. My recollection is that teh analysts told Mapes thatthe memos were probably NOT authentic, but CBS ran with the story anyway.
No. Plenty of speculation that it was somebody in either the DNC or Kerry campaign, but the evidence was not followed.
She forgot racist, sexist, homophobe and warmonger. ;~)) She also doesn't seem to grasp the concept that someone could look at the image of the fabricated documents on TV during the EST broadcast and tell immediately that they were "proportionally" spaced, not "peripheral" spaced (whatever the hell that is) and immediately post that observation to an on-line-forum that happens to be hosted in the PST time zone.
So many things are beyond the comprehension of the old line media and the most glaring is that they can't believe that many those unwashed people out in fly-over country who watch their reporting know a hell of a lot more about the topic than they ever will. That simple fact is incomprehensible to people like Mapes and Rather.
$1.50 at Books a Million.
On that last one, you have to admire one of the media's favorite techniques. Repeat something meaningless over and over and make it sound bad. Even IF the memos were being reviewed by evil republicans before the show aired, that wouldn't save them from being forgeries.
Actually, I believe this was true. TankerKC stated that a cursory look at the documents, shown on TV, looked suspicious. Howlin then echoed that sentiment. They posted for someone to get a screenshot of the docs. Howlin found them later in the evening, on the CBS website. Buckhead then was the first one to really come out and state emphatically that the documents were fake, but this was after they were posted to the CBS website.
"Hyperconservatives"? Mapes nad company are going to run out of superlatives. I wonder what a normal "conservative" would look like to them? I don't think they have the word in their lexicon.
Ya, but she may have a hard time cashing her paycheck. ;~))
Even if you're wrong. Even if you know you're wrong. Even if you lied. Even if it's proven you lied. Even if you look like a nitwit on national TV.
Yup. That's good policy.
What am I saying? They don't believe in God.
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