WSJ: CBS Producer Spent Years On Bush Record

Wall Street Journal ^ | September 17, 2004 | BROOKS BARNES and JOE FLINT

[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....

[toomanygrasshoppers]

"The allegations/lies have no value after the election"


You have nailed it 4CJ. She put so much time and effort in a story that she personally wanted to be true, but was never able to come up with credible evidence to present it. The clock was ticking and so she just threw it out there with what she had. After November 2, whether President Bush is re-elected or not, the story is irrelevant. The motive is clear. She was willing to risk her career and credibility in order to affect the outcome of an election.

[scholar]

Yes, the equipment was nothing less than archaic. I worked as a secretary at the U.S. Attorneys Office in Chicago. The number of documents to be produced on any given day was huge. We were lucky to have correction tape. Just before I left, they got a word processing system--not a computer--that wasn't much better than the typewriter. Cynic that I am, I could't help but wonder who got the kickback for purchasing the junk.