Dan Rather vs. W: 'The great untold story of modern Texas politics' (10,450 words)

[Newsjock]

Source: Texas Monthly

... But the CBS documents that seem destined to haunt Rather are, and have always been, a red herring. The real story, assembled here for the first time in a single narrative, featuring new witnesses and never-reported details, is far more complex than what Rather and Mapes rushed onto the air in 2004. At the time, so much rancorous political gamesmanship surrounded Bush’s military history that it was impossible to report clearly (and Rather’s flawed report effectively ended further investigations). But with Bush out of office, this is no longer a problem. I’ve been reporting this story since it first broke, and today there is more cooperation and willingness to speak on the record than ever before. The picture that emerges is remarkable. Beyond the haze of elaborately revised fictions from both the political left and the political right is a bizarre account that has remained, until now, the great untold story of modern Texas politics. For 36 years, it made its way through the swamps of state government as it led up to the collision between two powerful Texans on the national stage.

And by the time it was over, no one—not Dan Rather, not George W. Bush—would be left unbloodied.

... When it was dismissed, in 2009, he was devastated. He maintains a smoldering anger for CBS News. But Rather says he remains “optimistic” that somebody, somewhere, will one day come forward and reveal the truth of what happened. “They’re out there,” he says. “Let’s set the record straight.”

And what about George W. Bush? It’s unclear how the curators of his presidential library, which is slated to open next year at Southern Methodist University, will treat the ex-president’s life from 1968 to 1973. They’re unlikely to explore the finer details of his flight logs or offer any further information about his “lost year.” But his time flying planes in Texas during the height of the Vietnam War remains a defining part of his political biography nonetheless, a chapter he proudly referenced in 2003, when he landed in a jet plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier to declare the end of major combat operations in Iraq—right before the country sank into a bloody, years-long war that would divide the United States and claim tens of thousands of Iraqi and American lives. Bush has said history will be the judge. And so it will.

Read more: http://www.texasmonthly.com/2012-05-01/feature.php

[leveymg]

1. I'd love to hear if there really is anything new in that story.

[exboyfil]

2. I will never understand why CBS held on so long

to the memos being real. If they had backtracked immediately many careers would have been saved. They were deceived, and if they had said with the loudest microphone possible the damage would not have been that great.

If the reporters had done their job to begin with, then it would have never been an issue.

[yurbud]

3. the real story was how in the tank the media was for Bush in general and

how hard they'd come down on anyone with a national microphone who stepped beyond the proscribed range of criticism.

It was amazing at the time how dutifully all the other press outlets parroted Karl Rove's talking points about the ''forged document'' and sidestepped the real story of whether the general narrative Rather presented was accurate.

Actually, it shouldn't be surprising at all, given how the media are glad to focus on the horse race and gossip aspects of politics and normally leave little things like fact-checking, the track record of IDEAS, and who is paying to promote policies to independent websites and public interest groups.