CBS News Producer Fired In Memogate Will Shop Her Book

[kskiska]

Last Friday, two of the CBS News staffers who’d been asked to resign over a 60 Minutes Wednesday segment about President Bush’s Air National Guard service finally did so, signing nondisclosure agreements in the process. That seemingly brought the network one step closer to concluding its six-month ordeal—just in time for anchor Dan Rather to retire from the CBS Evening News on March 9.

But the end remains out of sight. Executive producer Josh Howard still refuses to resign. And now Mary Mapes, the producer fired for her involvement in the flawed segment, is preparing to shop a book proposal offering an inside account of what happened at CBS News during the memo scandal.

The book will constitute Ms. Mapes’ defense against charges of journalistic misconduct. According to Wesley Neff, president of the literary and lecture agency that is representing Ms. Mapes, the producer plans to argue for the veracity of the four memos supposedly typed by President Bush’s former National Guard squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, in the early 1970’s.

The independent panel that investigated the segment for CBS did not reach a verdict on those memos, which were at the center of the scandal. In its Jan. 10 report, the panel wrote that it could not conclude "with absolute certainty whether the Killian documents are authentic or forgeries."

more…
http://www.observer.com/pages/nytv.asp

[AngryAmish]

1. This will prove that KKKarl is at the heart of this

[underpants]

2. Marian Carr Knox

Knox says she didn’t type these memos, but she says she did type ones that contained the same information.

“I know that I didn’t type them," says Knox. "However, the information in those is correct.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/15/60II/main643768.shtml

[napi21]

3. How did we manage to let the Pubs get away with changing the

sibject AGAIN? The memos couldn't be verified as authentic, but the content was true! Why didn't we push that evidence instead of letting this become an issue about a piece of paper????

[underpants]

4. This is the most definitive proof of a rightwing press IMHO

In an odd way.

What did Ben Barnes SAY?
What did Killian's secretary SAY about the memos?
Are either of those things reported in EVERY news article about this?

[Bridget Burke]

5. The main feature of the show was Ben Barnes...

Explaining that, yes, he used political clout to get Bush into the TANG. The memos had nothing to do with that--they were just an extra, colorful detail. And all the discussions about PS fonts (yes, they had them back them) didn't prove that anything in the memos was untrue.

Where are all of Bush's old comrades from his TANG days?

[robbedvoter]

9. Because they own the bigger bullhorn. It'll always happen as long as

the entire media is their echo chamber.
Another example that popped to mind: after soundly beating clueless W in debates, the story that emerged was "outing poor Mary Cheney". They kept on it even in post 'elecction" polls - saying it was one of the reasons for the results.
And it always works - even on DU.
Or the Weat tapes replacing Gannon....Osama's tape replacing lost explosives in Iraq...Short attention span nation.
And then, they modify our past memories. Last night I was watching on TV land "100 most memorable moments on TV". Almost killed my teevee when they got to "Tim Russert announcing the 2000 election results". A teevee moment...it's all there is. Right next to Kirk kissing Uhura.

[blm]

6. If those memos were forged, the panel would have discovered it easily.

They had time, money, and experts to examine those memos. The fact that they SAY they can't determine if they were forged proves they were NOT forged but are under too much pressure from BushInc to admit the truth.

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. How I hope that the truth will come out. SOON, please

The whole thing reeks of Rovian filth, but has he covered all the tracks in his arrogance and certainty that he is invulnerable? And can the truth about AWOL's military un-service be found and brought to light at last?

I am hoping very hard.

[plasticsundance]

8. The CBS Three Won't Slink Off

JOE HAGAN: Well, first of all, asking them to resign is a kind of a legal technique which puts them in a position of not being able to talk, basically. As long as they're employed, if they go into the public and begin to tell things they know, then they will be -- they could be sued. So they have to be fired in order to ever say anything. And CBS can just not fire them, and just let their contracts run out. And meanwhile, they're in the position where they can’t even sue, because they're employees of the company right now. So, they have got them in a bind. Meanwhile, the staffers are very angry, because they had their reputations destroyed by this whole event, but also, they have intimated, through back channels, that they have all kinds of information that was not in the report that implicates the top management at CBS in the stonewalling of the event, and also they question the report itself and how it was assembled, and who it was assembled by, by the way.

<snip>

JOE HAGAN: That is one of the -- that's a huge issue. This report comes out, it’s supposed to be the most exhaustive report ever, and it doesn't actually conclude whether the documents are false or not, which -- I mean, that's -- if that question mark lies out there, then how can you draw any conclusions from any of this? I just find it really unbelievable and, you know, basically, there's just this huge assumption in the mainstream media, that it's like a left-wing partisan thing, which is kind of ridiculous when you consider that four or five years ago The Boston Globe actually already reported all of this information, just without the documents. I mean, about Bush's National Guard service. We already kind of know that there are gaps in his National Guard record, and that he didn't fulfill his duty. This is just already on the record and reported. So, here they just had a document that was supposed to be the smoking gun that, you know, finally makes it 100% provable, and -- you know -- it's just

<snip>

JOE HAGAN: -- incredible question. And, if, you know, if you were to -- I have spoken with really highly respected, top TV industry people who spin very elaborate conspiracy theories to me about what they think is going on here: If CBS doesn't want to know, the Thornburgh report doesn't want to know, and the White House doesn't want to know, well, what's going on here? Is it just one crazy guy who typed this up in his place? But I don't know about that.