Posted on 09/17/2004 6:24:10 AM PDT by OESY
...Ms. Mapes, 48 years old, is a workaholic who spends years developing and nurturing relationships that might pay off in marquee scoops. CBS News executives say she spent two months reporting the Abu Gharib story before it was ready for broadcast. She spent close to five years digging into Mr. Bush's National Guard history....
Ms. Mapes also produced Wednesday's follow-up segment in which CBS -- after a week of dismissing calls for an internal investigation and defending the documents as authentic -- said it was aggressively investigating the source of the documents and acknowledged there was a legitimate chance they could be forgeries....
Ms. Mapes has extensive experience with politically sensitive news stories. Aside from the Abu Gharib story, her résumé includes persuading the biracial daughter of Strom Thurmond to talk on television for the first time and award-winning stories on the aftermath of 1991's Desert Storm.
...[S]ays Jon Klein, a former high-ranking CBS News executive, "She's the last person you'd ever expect to be in a controversy about credibility," he says. "She is one of the most credible people in the industry."
...In 1999, Ms. Mapes emerged from behind the camera when she refused a district judge's order to turn over a videotape and transcript of an interview Mr. Rather conducted with Shawn Allen Berry, one of three white men later convicted of dragging a black man to death behind their pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. Twice found in contempt of court orders, Ms. Mapes narrowly avoided jail time when CBS agreed to publish a full transcript on its Web site....
Ms. Mapes grew up in rural western Washington and landed her first big news job as a producer at the Seattle television station KIRO....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Rather and Mapes spent five years working on this story.
And this web site took it down in less than 4 hours.
Very telling.
And I did nothing more than we all usually do: ask questions.
Five years? It didn't even pass the smell test! Heck, what we knew before Ben Barnes opened his mouth should have made anybody suspicious!
I always thought someone copied this misbegotten aerial kamikazi hot rod from the French (somehow, THEIR delta wing works) or maybe some NAZI wunderwaffen of late 1945, but that somehow they didn't get it quite right.
Now that isn't saying much.
Did she aggressively investigate Juanita Brodderick's allegations of rape? They must have forgotten to list that investigation.
They just don't realize it yet.
This fraudulent (and incredibly flimsy) attempt to bring down a sitting President with forged documents demonstrates just how detached from reality Rather and his CBS ilk are.
The creation of these forgeries is a SERIOUS CRIME, for which someone should answer. All other considerations are secondary, especially CBS's ridiculous (and impotent even if true) "news story." The primary focus should be the forgeries, and who was involved and complicit.
I think that it's probably too late for CBS to retain its credibility; the damage is done now. CBS's disconnect is truly profound.
It will sink in sooner or later; Rather will retire in disgrace, and it will take YEARS for CBS to rehabilitate its reputation, if ever.
It's such a travesty, I almost pity the disgraced has-been named Rather. Talk about a partisan political operative! Rather fits the bill perfectly.
"Clinton's Uncle Raymond Clinton personally lobbied Senator Fulbright, William S. Armstrong, the chairman of the three-man Hot Springs draft board, and Lt. Comdr. Trice Ellis, Jr., commanding officer of the local Navy reserve unit, to obtain a slot for Clinton in the Naval Reserve.and
Colonel Eugene Holmes wrote: ". . . I began to receive phone calls regarding Bill Clinton's draft status. I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the ROTC program. I received several such calls."http://www.archive-news.net/Articles/BC040915.html
The definition of, "Get a life!"
Lesbian femminist?
If this obviously vicious bias does not make a lasting impression on the minds of the viewing public, nothing ever will. Every negative thing they want to present about GW is given unlimited air time while the Swift Boat vets get NO time in the lamestream.
Re Blather's defense of the technology used to produce those documents--I worked for the federal government in the early '80's. We were lucky to have Selectric typewriters that still worked, much less anything sophisticated enough to do superscripts, word wrap, etc. Technology wise, the federal government is still probably working in the dark ages.
No, she isn't Miss Marple, and for that I am MOST grateful!
Dear rocklobster11,
Your excellent graphic is missing the relationships between Max Cleland and Kerry, Max and Bill Burkett (admitted by both Bill and Max), and Bill Burkett and the DNC (he claims to have contacted them directly regarding his "informaiton").
sitetest
Many NG posters have pointed out that NG had hand-me-down equipment so even in 1972 they would be using 1960-somthing typewriters.
I think she spent five years wishing for a miracle to salvage this piece of dung.
I she the reason those African 'you're a millionaire' emails keep coming? Someone had to fall for it or they won't have stopped.
NOTE TO STOCKHOLDERS: Is this a proper use of resources? Demand accountability (or sell your shares QUICK while the gettin's good)
Good analogy; good analysis.
One cable news last week, they were interviewing old CBS correspondents, and I believe that it was Liz Trotta who said (paraphrasing): "Five years? That's ridiculous; if you can't develop a story after a year or two there isn't a story THERE."
That's what tells you that CBS/Mapes were on a quest for a White Whale, come Hell or high water....
Mary Mapes produced CBS's Bush story.
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