CBS aired the story on Sept. 8, 2004, at the height of the presidential campaign, hours after White House official Dan Bartlett did not challenge the authenticity of the memos when asked about them by CBS. Bartlett said later that he had no way of knowing on such short notice whether the memos were real.CBS News President Andrew Heyward and Senior Vice President Betsy West not only were not defending their central News anchor, they were actively trying to get information on Dan Rather and Mary Mapes to smear them. Also, add Sumner Redstone, chief executive of the network's then-parent company, Viacom and CBS Chairman Les Moonves to the list of specifically named gutter slime.
Gold, Rather's lawyer, maintained that "nobody's proved the documents were forgeries. The way we look at it, it's more than likely the documents are authentic." [Snip]
Asked why Rather would sue more than a year after leaving CBS, Gold said the former anchor was "a bit appalled" at new information he said had emerged involving a private investigator, Erik Rigler, who was hired by the network during the 2004 controversy. Rigler, a former FBI agent, "was trying to dig up dirt on Dan and Mary Mapes," Gold said, declining to elaborate.
So much for an independent press that operates as a fourth branch of government and works to protect American democracy. The conservative and Republican gutter slime will do whatever they can to destroy all opposition to their authoritarian rule.
10 comments:
"Rigler, a former FBI agent, "was trying to dig up dirt on Dan and Mary Mapes," Gold said, declining to elaborate."
But that was what Mapes (for five years) and Dan were doing as well to Bush, right?
How can they whine about CBS doing what they were doing themselves, and for CBS to boot?
Personally, I find it embarrassing that Dan Rather is still dragging his "anchor" around. You could say his leaking craft has run aground on the shoals. Or make that on the SCHORR. In any case, this morning, Daniel Schorr speaks for me on Rather.
Let's see. Bush pulled strings to get into the Texas Air National Guard in order to avoid the draft for Vietnam, a war he supported. The Air Force spend over a million dollars training him to fly jets in defense of this country.
War's over. Bush bugs out, without finishing his commitment to the military. No part of this is in question. It is just a bit tasteless to his right-wing militarist supporters (and more important, the independents he was courting) when he ran for President.
Why'd bush just up and quit flying and then quit even attending Reserve duty? That's something the press should have been all over. Character. He does not live up to his commitments.
But wait! Bush became Governor of Texas. As Governor he had the power to clean up his military record and hide it from the world when he ran for President. Anyone doubt that he did exactly that? I've worked with the Texas National Guard. They do that kind of thing regularly.
This is a story, and the Press should have been all over it. It is a character issue for a politician running on character. So Dan Rather went after the story.
CBS used to sell itself as a news organization before hiring Katy Couric to make it an entertainment piece of crap. [All O.J. - Paris Hilton all the time now, if it's not something cutesy.]
Dan Rather is a news man and wanted to publish the news Americans needed about Bush. What happened? Bush threatened Viacom and CBS and they refused to publish the real news(Abu Ghraib and Bush's failure to act like an adult with his especially bought Air National Guard berth) and instead they attacked Dan Rather for doing what the American public expects of our news media.
Dan offered to pay for the investigator himself, but the CBS management says "No-no, we'll hire and pay the investigator." Then they get an investigator and instead of using him to try to find out how accurate the story was, they use him as an attack dog to go after Mary Mapes and Dan Rather, the reporters who supposedly work for CBS.
The really interesting part is that the investigator apparently confirmed what Rather and Mapes said happened was true. So to protect the psycho son-of-a-bitch who currently holds office as President, they fire the reporters who want to tell America what kind of person he really is.
That's CBS and Viacom as political actors, not as news reporters. Dan Rather is a reporter. The "suits" involved are lying political scumbags acting as part of a coup de etate against the U.S. Constitution.
How can "...they whine about CBS doing what they were doing themselves"? That's not what the lawsuit is all about. The scumbags signed a contract with Dan and failed to live up to it. That's what the lawsuit is about.
The rest of us will simply get the side-effects of the investigations and testimony under oath as those lying Republican bastards at Viacom and CBS defend the crap they pulled that the contract said they couldn't do.
Mikem, if you are a Republican, how can you complain that someone takes a breach of contract lawsuit into court? That's not whining. That's doing business as an honest businessman and trying to get recompense because the other party to the contract did not fulfill the terms they agreed to.
Oh, wait! I forgot. "Honest" businessmen don't become Republicans, do they? There is an entrance requirement at the door for Republicans - must never be known to tell the truth or act with honest intent.
Richard,
So, when Mapes or Rather do it, it is in the public's interest. But when some other investigators do it to them, it is a smear job?
You wouldn't happen to know what Kerry's discharge was before it was reissued during the Carter amnesty, would you? I never heard of someone demanding that a good discharge be changed (I served), but I guess we will never know. It wasn't in the public interest to know what kind of bad discharge the presidential candidate Kerry received originally, don't ya know.
But don't get me wrong. This whole thing is a gift from on high. Thank you, Dan.
Courage, unimpeachable Dan.
Mikem,
Your point is unintelligible. An investigation into the lies and cover-ups of an individual running for President and a public report of the results is an essential part of "open and transparent government" without which democracy cannot exist. That's what Mapes and Rather were attempting to do, and no one is left even trying in the corporate media anymore.
If you believe that there is not enough public reporting on the actions of the news media itself, I'll agree. Colombia Journalism Review is too restrained while Media Matters and the Daily Howler don't do enough. None hire private investigators, sadly.
Somehow I fail to see how the Republican-controlled suits hiring a PI to investigate their own reporter, and when he exhonerates the reporters from the allegations, firing them for doing their jobs, amounts to doing the same thing as investigating the incompetent murderous lying psychotic who currently occupies the White House after the coup of 2000.
Nor can I see how any patriotic American who believes in American Constitutional government could possible defend the murderous slime in the Republican Party who are trying to destroy America. Only traitors to America can attempt to defend Bush.
Uninformative ad hominums removed
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