Free Republic

what a memory....just awesome....caught em red handed.

I am warming up to watch the documentary Rather, celebrating the career of the disgraced former CBS News anchor. It is to be aired this coming Wednesday on Netflix. Apparently having access to a screener for media critics, the Star Tribune’s Neal Justin found the documentary to be wanting (“when it comes to the stumbles, like walking off the set when a tennis match went long, the legendary broadcaster goes missing”). Speaking of “stumbles,” we have the matter of Rathergate. However, “stumble” doesn’t quite capture it. “Disgrace,” “disaster,” and “fraud” are more like it. Award-winning CBS News producer Mary Mapes...

An important anniversary [is today]. This anniversary carries implications for how we receive news, how political campaigns are conducted, and the credibility of almost everything we see or hear from the media.On September 8, 2004, CBS’s “60 Minutes” used forged government documents as the basis for a story that attacked the military record of then-President George W. Bush. It was bad enough that CBS used forged government documents, but what made it worse was that CBS aired this story during the presidential election and timed the airing to coincide with the rollout of Democrat John Kerry’s “favorite son” campaign theme....

Any rational person familiar with the behavior of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during the prosecutorial misconduct hearings that finally ended last Friday has probably concluded that her conduct has created the “appearance of impropriety.” This, according to defense lawyers for former President Trump and several co-defendants, is sufficient to disqualify Willis and the Fulton County DA’s office from prosecuting the RICO case they launched last August. Indeed, defense attorney Harry MacDougald cited six examples of actual conflicts of interest, any one of which is sufficient to disqualify Willis and her office. Yet it’s unlikely that it will happen....

Atlanta attorney Harry MacDougald is our old Rathergate friend. He helped us get the ball rolling in “The 61st minute” on the morning of September 9, 2004. Writing under the screen name Buckhead, Harry observed in comment number 47 of Free Republic’s Rathergate thread: “I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old. This should be pursued aggressively.” Life has never been quite the same since we took his cue and followed up. Harry is the managing partner of Atlanta’s Caldwell, Carlson, Elliott & DeLoach law firm. He represents defendant...

Fani Willis Disqualification Hearing LIVE Day 4 Closing Arguments And ruling if Wade’s Cell phone records can be admitted

The misconduct hearings on efforts to oust Fulton County DA Fani Willis from the Trump RICO case have come to a close. Both sides delivered final arguments Friday, each arguing where the bar should be set for the judge's looming disqualification decision. ... Trump defense attorney Steve Sadow said an "appearance of impropriety" is "enough" to disqualify her under Georgia law. ... Sadow raised rhetorical questions about who has the strongest motive to lie: "Who has the best motive of anyone to lie? They do. Who has the most at stake to lie? They do. Who wants to stay on...

For four months, Rathergate gestated in the belly of the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). Finally, the mountain labored and brought forth a pipsqueak.Corey Pein, a stalwart of that noble guardian of media matters has published a long, (3400 words) tedious, and foolish analysis whose primary point is to absolve CBS and Dan Rather of the blame for publicizing the famous Burkett forgeries last September on 60 Minutes II. Pein signals his disposition in the title of his piece—Blog-Gate. The offence, you see, was the blog world's exposure of the forgeries with astonishing swiftness and transparency. Then, sheeplike, to their shame,...