Posted on 09/19/2004 4:09:08 AM PDT by beyond the sea
..............In the years that CBS producer Mary Mapes has been pursuing this story, she never contacted Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's secretary, Marian Carr Knox, until after her existence was revealed by the Drudge Report. On 60 Minutes on Wednesday, Knox said that the documents were forgeries, but the content was accurate.
Mapes interviewed Killian's widow Marjorie Connell and his son Gary. Both expressed doubt to the CBS producer that the documents were real. Neither of them have appeared on the network nor even been mentioned in CBS's reporting.
CBS' own experts have moved away from the authenticity of the documents. One of the experts consulted was Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina. She told ABC News that she sent Mapes an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.
She said, "I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story."
If Rather was informed of the doubts, he ignored them, plunging his network into a quagmire. The veteran anchor forged ahead because, as he stated on Wednesday's broadcast, that the charges are so charges are so serious, the evidence of little importance.
His confidence in Mapes may have led him to go with the story, despite the red flags. After all, it was Mapes who brought CBS the Abu Ghraib photos of prisoner abuse and who risked jail by refusing to turn over videotapes of Rather's interview with a man charged in the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas.
But Mapes' father sees a political agenda behind his daughter's work. Don Mapes, 76, was a recent guest on a radio talk show hosted by John Carlson on KVI in Seattle.
He said, "I'm really ashamed of what my daughter has become. She's a typical liberal. She went into journalism with an ax to grind, and that was to promote radical feminism."
He confessed to being disappointed in his daughter's role in the controversy. He said, "When I heard about 60 Minutes, I suspected she would be the producer of the show."
In an interview with Talon News, Don Mapes said his suspicion was because that he believed, "Dan Rather and she have been working on this ever since Bush was elected."
In commenting on the Wednesday's 60 Minutes show, he said, "It was a farce, it was fraud. I'm sorry as a father that my daughter was the producer of it."
His fatherly instinct showed through when he said, "To give her the benefit of the doubt, I believe she has been had."
But he also chastised his daughter for being intellectually dishonest.
He said, "She ought to look closer at George Soros or Michael Moore."
Mary Mapes declined several opportunities to comment for this article.
Christmas at the Mapes house this year might be a little tense.
Rather spoke at a fundraiser in Travis County(Austin)...Abilene is near Bill Burkett's home in Baird.
I read in another article that they don't see each other much at all. They can't stand each other. He has said that she is an "embarrassment" to him.
I'm sure she'll be penning a book soon.
"I was abused by my right-winged Dad"
Poor guy. Imagine how bad you'd feel, being the father of a CBS News producer. Hopefully Mr Mapes has other children, who have done something worthwhile with their lives.
Rather is guilty as sin. For one, I am tired of the other flacks in the old media pretending that Dano couldn't have taken part in the fraud purposefully. BULL. He's been crooked for decades.
Look at his face at rest. It has deep dread and guilt written all over it! He's probably going to have to pay in the next life.
Yep, right along with Barnes and his daughter. Maybe Mr.Barnes and Ms.Mapes could be a family this year and Barnes' daughter could celebrate the holidays with Mapes' dad.
This could get complicated before the election is finally over....
At the Barnes house as well.
Wow....daddy's little girl is a an intellectually dishonest liberal? Who'd'a thunk it?
Good point. That's something to look into.
LOL!
Maybe Dan Rather's daughter can spend Chritmas with Dan Rather -- in prison.
..And that's the crux of it. Many liberals just can NOT be honest, and have next to no integrity. They are so blinded by fantasy, utopianism and power they can not see what is real.
The easy way to describe them is selfish immature brats.
LOL! What's the opposite of an oxymoron?
I think you have one there.
She lost her family's respect and her peers respect. This has to be a truely low point in her life.
See post #7.
"Christmas at the Mapes house this year might be a little tense."
Sounds like it wouldn't be the first time.
?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.