Fired CBS News Producer Unrepentant

[smb]

Journalist at Center of Controversial Report on Bush's National Guard Duty Speaks Out

In her first interview since being fired, former CBS News producer Mary Mapes maintains that her controversial "60 Minutes II" story on President Bush's National Guard service was "true" and that "no one has proved that the documents were not authentic."...

In her interview with ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, to be broadcast Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America," Mapes says she is unrepentant about her role. "I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't," she says....

[Mike Nelson]

1. Unrepentant? -

Mary?

[Shakespeare]

2. Why on earth should she be repentant?

She's one of the few journalists out there trying to do her job.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Go Mary, go Mary, go Mary go

Tell the story again. America needs to be reminded of how stinky and shameful the military record is for our Usurper-in-Chief.

Only good can come from this.

I hope the NeoCons go ape-shit in response. Stir the muck up some more.

This time many more Americans will be reminded of the AWOL-Deserter TRUTH that lurks in the ugly background of the Skull-and-Boner at the helm, steering the Ship of State -- the S.S. ChimPee -- dead ahead onto the ROCKS.

[Rambis]

4. He lied to the American people

it is Mary's fault for reporting it? Has this country gone fucking insane!!!!!!

[SlavesandBulldozers]

20. the short answer is yes.

It has.

[dkofos]

5. And they still haven't proven * is not a deserter

[AngryAmish]

6. DU proved her right

We all know she is right.

[xchrom]

7. lol -- what's to repent? that he didn't desert?

he did!

[crossroads]

8. Repent for telling the Truth?

How sick is that reasoning? Only a freeper would buy that spit!

[I Have A Dream]

9. Kick.

:kick:

[Beaverhausen]

10. I got the Vanity Fair yesterday with the story in it

Hope I have time to read it one of these days...

[Sgent]

11. Ok (flaimsuit on)

How is putting forth an obviously faked memo newsworthy?

I agree with the thrust -- it seems that W abandoned his reserve obligations; however, her attempts seemed to have supported the other side as any future correct evidence will be disregarded.

[BJW]

13. Good Question

Well, if she's been silent this long, and after all the reporting on this, and she's still this adamant, then I think it's worth looking at the whole episode once again, from the start, with fresh eyes. There were many aspects of it that I felt either weren't covered at all or weren't correctly. Like, for example, the "proof" of fakery claim based on the allegation that the "th" font size wasn't available on typewriters back then--a claim that is actually incorrect.

I don't see any harm in revisiting this, particularly because of the "players" links in Texas politics (lottery scandal, Harriet Miers, etc.) and to *, that have come out since then.

[Bridget Burke]

23. The memo was NOT obviously faked.

I'm one of the ones who used an IBM Executive typewriter back then. It had proportional spacing.

Even though the provenance of the memo was uncertain, the facts of Bush's miliary years were never questioned. He used "pull" to get a safe place to do his duty & he didn't do his duty.

[Raster]

24. so please, flame-suited one, enlighten all of us as to how you know

the memo was "obviously faked." Please, we're waiting...

[AngryAmish]

29. It has been proved to the satisfaction of DU that the docs were legit

[Canuckistanian]

12. The secretary said the story was probably true

It's just the piece of paper it was typed on that was in doubt.

[unblock]

14. they should air the story

at this point, the story itself is a story. they could have an entire program dedicated to the original story and then to the 'controversy' surrounding it.

[MasonJar]

15. I'd bet those Skull and Boners gagged when they had to invite

numb"skull" in. Kerry was probably one of those who gagged.

[Greyhound]

16. Nah, they've a long tradition of dim-witted legacies. n/t

[brentspeak]

17. She was dumber than a box of rocks

1) Bill Burkett gives CBS what he says are the memos.

2) Burkett provides CBS with the name of the person he claims were the memos' source, a former National Guard buddy of his named George Conn.

3) Mary Mapes fails for some unfathomable reason to call the alleged source to verify Burkett's story.

4) When questions surrounding the memos surface, Burkett changes his story to say that his actual source was really somebody else, a person named "Lucy Ramirez". Burkett is revealed as a whack job.

5) CBS finally gets around to calling Burkett's original named source, George Conn tells CBS he wasn't the source for Burkett's memos, and that he knows absolutely nothing about the whole thing.

6) Mary Mapes could have prevented this monumental embarrassment to CBS News simply by adhering to basic high school journalism standards -- calling the original source to verify facts.

[tom22]

18. I'd still like a complete interview with the secretary.

[LostinVA]

22. The secretary said she typed memos like those

on the news report.

[Raster]

25. she just said she did not type that particular memo, but the content

reflected EXACTLY what was happening at the time.

[fshrink]

19. Hope her husband doesn't work for the CIA...

[farmbo]

21. She fell for the oldest Rovian trick in the book: using bogus documents...

... to "debunk" a real story.

Alas, she deserves her fate.

[rocktivity]

26. You KNEW the documents were photocopies

and your source TOLD you he got them from someone else! You didn't commit bad journalism, just bad producing!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Vidar]

27. cheering a brave woman.

[Bozita]

28. Mary Mapes to be on Larry King tonight (Wed)

[SoCalDem]

30. This is precisely why "hot stories" must NEVER languish

The Bush gang played it just right.. spirit away the stinky stuff, and deny and refuse to comment until the key "players" are dead, or enough time has passed to have marginalized them..

By the time people really start looking into the mess, there are just bits and pieces and the people willing to talk , can be portrayed as nuts.