Free Republic

Abstract: Those who commit real crimes should be prosecuted and appropriately punished. But the question of what kind of conduct is deserving of criminal punishment has become increasingly muddled in federal law. Although numerous ridiculous crimes that punish relatively trivial wrongs have crept into federal law, the greater danger comes from serious laws that are vague and overbroad. Further, Congress has authorized federal agencies to create tens of thousands of additional crimes that trap Americans by punishing obscure conduct. Federal agencies and prosecutors with inadequate oversight make overly aggressive application of these laws to target Americans who are often unaware...

Mary Mapes website for her book Truth and Duty has a page labelled DOCUMENTS. On this page she has her famous "meshing" defense for proof that the memos were accurate. On November 16 she added 12 additional documents she got from the Texas National Guard Headquarters. Unwittingly, she posted documents that actually DISproved many of her arguments. Some of the documents were letters to the Guard Headquarters asking preferential treatment for the sons of important people, but the letters were actually refusals by the Guard commanders to these requests. They were only up for a day before someone at Mary's...

At CBS News the long awaited "memogate" report is in and four people are out of a job. Is this one of the biggest scandals ever to hit American journalism? Did the report go far enough? And what about the recommendations made by the independent panel investigating the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story about President Bush's National Guard service? Our panelists will weigh in on those questions and much more! Then, in our "Quick Takes on the Media" segment: • What was the real reason for the massive media coverage of the South Asian tsunami? • Should a reaction to a...

AFTER SPENDING THREE MONTHS ON an investigation that must have rung up hundreds of thousands of dollars in billable hours, the team of lawyers hired by CBS to investigate its scandalously spurious report about George W. Bush's long-ago National Guard service finally concluded last week that CBS shouldn't have aired the September 8 broadcast at all. Former attorney general Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press chief Louis D. Boccardi, who led the investigative panel, declared that there had simply been too many questions about the veracity of the supposedly bombshell documents on which it relied. (Cont.)

CBS News is undoubtedly hoping that release of the Thornburgh/Boccardi Report, with its embarrassing admissions, will satisfy critics enough that the Rathergate scandal will be allowed to disappear into dim memory. They are wrong. Many observers, our own Clarice Feldman included, have been impressed by the extent of the incompetence (and worse) CBS has admitted with this internal report. Some, like Jim Geraghty, of National review Online, are concerned that critics of CBS should appear reasonable, and praise what is praiseworthy, while asking for more information, as a matter of political strategy. Already, Washington Post writers Howard Kurtz and Dana...

I, who never watch CBS News, spent yesterday afternoon, reading the lengthy Thornburgh/Boccardi Report. Within its considerable limitations, it is a fine, well-detailed view of the CBS TANG memo scandal. While it could have asked other questions, and utilized other investigative approaches (for example, analyzing the telephone records of various key individuals), given its methodology, it tells us quite a bit that is embarrassing to those who are paying for it. The Report reveals what most of us who don't watch network news already knew: CBS News is a shoddy operation all around, one more concerned with production values and...

John Podhoretz does a great job unpacking and re-assembling the information in the CBS Report, to show that: Mapes was not "focused on any particular event or topic." In other words, she had nothing to go on. And yet on she went, searching for a "viable story line." Mapes was on a gigantic fishing expedition. She was trying to bag a president. She did so with the consent and support of her superiors. With that aim in mind, she partnered up with one Michael Smith, a Texas journalist. Smith told her he had a "tasty brisket of information" to share...

Just heard from a person familiar with the network's inner workings that the report by ex-U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi, former head of The Associated Press, may not be coming out until January. CBS News President Andrew Heyward said on September 20, 2004 that he hoped the panel will report in "weeks, not months." [Posted 12/10 01:54 PM]

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said the independent panel investigating the network's report on President Bush's National Guard service probably wouldn't complete its work before the presidential election. The Sept. 8 report on CBS's "60 Minutes" news magazine relied on now-discredited documents. While the scrutiny of Viacom Inc.'s CBS has faded somewhat, some media pundits warn that the longer the panel's inquiry takes, the more unsettled it leaves CBS. And against the argument that the report should come after the election to avoid any unintended influence or distraction, some counter that a delay makes the network seem to be dragging its...

James Carville, the man who said Zell Miller was probably drugged while delivering the RNC keynote address, deserves a little scrutiny of his own recent actions and associations.Carville and CNN stand to benefit from CBS's plummeting ratings. Carville's friends, the Clintons, stand to benefit from the defanging of any Kerry attacks on Bush's national guard service. He has connections to Burkett's lawyer, Van Os. He's got connections to Joe Lockhart.

Dick Thornburgh, the former attorney general selected by CBS to help investigate a flawed report broadcast earlier this month on "60 Minutes,'' sharply criticized that program in a memoir published last year In the book, "Where the Evidence Leads'' (University of Pittsburgh Press), Mr. Thornburgh described "60 Minutes" as having "chimed in with its usual sensationalized treatment'' in a 1992 report about the Justice Department's handling of an investigation into illegal lending by an Italian bank. When, as Mr. Thornburgh writes in the book, "60 Minutes'' later sought to interview him because he had been an under secretary general of...

September 24, 2004 Investigator for CBS Criticized '60 Minutes'By JACQUES STEINBERG ick Thornburgh, the former attorney general selected by CBS to help investigate a flawed report broadcast earlier this month on "60 Minutes,'' sharply criticized that program in a memoir published last year.In the book, "Where the Evidence Leads'' (University of Pittsburgh Press), Mr. Thornburgh described "60 Minutes" as having "chimed in with its usual sensationalized treatment'' in a 1992 report about the Justice Department's handling of an investigation into illegal lending by an Italian bank.When, as Mr. Thornburgh writes in the book, "60 Minutes'' later sought to interview him...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh spoke in Oakland Wednesday night. Thornburgh was part of a panel discussion on global issues sponsored in part by ABC News and the World Affairs Council. He did comment on his new job, investigating the "60 Minutes" documents scandal for CBS News. Channel 4 Action News anchor Scott Baker got Thornburgh's first reaction and asked about one possible conflict. "Generally you comment on investigations after they're over, not before they start," said Thornburgh. But when you're tasked with sorting through a journalistic scandal of such visibility, you will be asked. Thornburgh continued, "Well I don't...

Dick Thornburgh was named to a a special panel appointed by to CBS to investigate the Rathergate story. At first blush, naming Thornburgh looks like an attempt to avoid partisanship. After all Thornburgh is a Republican who served as Attorney General under Reagan and Bush, as well as Governor of Pennsylvania. But there is a curious wrinkle to the story; namely, the history of litigation between Thornburgh and senior Bush aide Karl Rove. In my post Karl Rove's Lawsuit Against Dick Thornburgh (Part I), I explained: In my Agency and Partnership class today, I'm teaching Karl Rove & Co. v....

NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS appoints former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press chief executive Lou Boccardi to investigate National Guard documents story.

Racicot: "John Kerry Continues to Play Politics with Important Security Matters" ARLINGTON, VA -- Earlier today, Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman Gov. Marc Racicot and former Attorneys General William Barr and Dick Thornburgh spoke at a press conference in Washington, D.C. to highlight the importance of the Patriot Act in winning the War on Terror. The press conference also pointed out Sen. John Kerry's continued efforts to play politics with important security matters. "The Patriot Act is essential to protecting Americans from terrorist attacks and all responsible public figures must explain this to the American people. I applaud President Bush...