At the dentist's office today, picked up the latest issue of Time. They had a little interview with the guy who Rather interviewed for the Big Tobacco racketeering story. He described their story checking back when they worked with him as "picayune." He said they went over every detail with him a dozen times.
Two differences between then and now:
1. The President was unlikely to sue, but if they accidentally libeled the tobacco companies, they would have been sued until Dan was wearing a barrel on the nightly newscast.
2. Dan Rather (and more to the point, Mary Mapes) wanted to prove Dubya missed some drills 30 years ago more than he ever wanted to prove that tobacco companies were in a conspiracy to kill their customers. Heck Mapes worked on the AWOL story for five years, and the Manhattan Project took 3 years!
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Thank you for your CLARITY, Mr. S.
Ain't the Internet & Freerepublic grand..?
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