"I Relied on the Information, not the Authentication" [Mapes' Phony-but-true Defense]

Fox & Friends | governsleastgovernsbest

[governsleastgovernsbest]

The phony-but-accurate defense is back.

Mary Mapes, producer of the notorious Rathergate story in which CBS relied on blatantly forged documents to argue that the young George W. Bush received preferential treatment in the National Guard, just completed an interview on Fox & Friends with ED Hill.

ED was grilling Mapes rather hard as to the standards of authentication that were required to go forward with such an explosive story. Mapes first gave something of a "depends what the meaning of is, is" defense. She claimed that the standard of authentication for her purposes could be lower than that of absolute proof in a legal setting.

Mapes then added: "I relied on the information, not the authentication."

Translation: yeah, the documents could have been phony, but the underlying story was true.

The old false-but-accurate defense rides again!

As an aside, IMO ED Hill could have been tougher in terms of demonstrating how blatant were the forgeries, but other than that I felt ED handled herself in a professional manner.

[Uncle Vlad]

How ironic the "Bush Lied" crowd would so desperately pin their hopes to this, of all stories, last year. It was, in fact, to paraphrase Teddy the Swimmer, the Left that concocted a story in Texas, based on a lie, for political gain.

Downright surreal, isn't it?

[Cboldt]

What about fake/forged military documents? Surely, laws were broken here?

Nope. Faking history is legal.

[A Citizen Reporter]

This was my favorite part: "This is what is difficult about iT. We tossed the word around authenticate and there's a legal meaning to it and then there's the kind of thing you and i would talk about. Legally authenticate means 100%, which would be an ink test or something like that. You can't do that on a copy and i always knew that and what i felt we had to do was rely on the information much more than the very subjective profession of document analysiS.

That's Mary Mape's own definition of the word "is" moment. She acts as if she lives in a world where she can't be touched by legal action, even though she tried to effect the re-election of a sitting president with fabricated documents.

[randita]

Mapes then added: "I relied on the information, not the authentication."

Mapes relied on "selective" information and conveniently ignored information from the family and associates of the Colonel which contradicted the propoganda from Bill Burkett.

[massgopguy]

Mapes is on WRKO now. BUCKHEAD where are you??? 1-617-266-6868

[sticker]

Savage lucid??????

Surely, you jest

[Cboldt]

What about fake/forged military documents? Surely, laws were broken here?

Links to preliminary analyses below ...

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1230844/posts?page=6#6

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yesterday, someone on this page described CBS as "Plant of the Mapes."

[pookie18]

[TexanByBirth]

Why even have this discredited person on?

Because Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican, Male or Female.....

It is always about their book!

[DA740]

Two broads arguing over what's true is like two vegetarians arguing over a porterhouse steak.

DA740

[Sal]

"I relied on the information, not the authentication."

ROTFLMBO. What if President Bush said this about the military intel before the war? ALL the Rats would scream themselves hoarse.

And the best part is that Bush's intel was a whole lot more accurate and true than the documents from the Ra^ther forgery team.

I think we'll eventually get confirmation on WMDs (Syria) etc. not to mention how much stuff has been found in Iraq that everyone just ignores--including the Bush administration for some reason.

[MJemison]

Asked and answered in your own post! Fox is helping sell books. There might be a "follow the money" angle here.

I'll be surprised if her book sells. Even to democrats.