Free Republic

While Ted Turner was in college, his father wrote him a letter that concluded: "I think you are rapidly becoming a jackass." Anyone who has watched the eccentric billionaire over the years might be inclined to admire Dad's prescience.... Far from self-made, Mr. Turner inherited a large billboard business when his father, with whom he had a troubled relationship, committed suicide.... He had been less lucky in 1985 when, without consulting his board, he bought MGM for $1.5 billion. He overpaid and was drowning in debt. Three months later he sold the studio back at a discount. More damaging, he...

When The New Yorker magazine, planning months ago for its annual festival weekend, booked Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw for a panel discussion about the presidential campaign, the topic seemed relatively innocuous. But as the three network news anchors convened on Saturday under a vaulted ceiling at the New York Public Library, a subject far closer to home had intruded: Mr. Rather's admission last month that he had erred, first in broadcasting and later in defending a flawed report on the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" about President Bush's National Guard service. Under early prodding from the panel...

From "Kerry's Brain," an article by Ken Auletta in The New Yorker: Page 67: "Last week, the Vietnam War became an issue again. Democrats seized upon new evidence that seemed to show that George W. Bush had used political influence to be assigned to the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."

Last week, as the furor over Dan Rather's National Guard memos grew more and more intense, media critic Ken Auletta, appearing on PBS, criticized Fox News Channel for having "treated this story as if it were Watergate. It's not Watergate." Actually, in many respects, it is indeed broadcast journalism's Watergate.... There are two serious problems with this entire episode, beyond the obvious blow to CBS News' credibility. One is Rather's defensive — even accusatory — reaction to any and all questions about the documents' legitimacy.... First, they refused to consider any questions whatsoever — even from respected news organizations —...