CBS News Producer Fired In Memogate Will Shop Her Book

[Roland99]

http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage1.asp

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."

[ArkDem]

1. This is a huge surprise.

[Fridays Child]

2. Good for her. I hope she goes further than just discussing her anger...

...at learning that the so-called independent investigation of the papers was actually a witch hunt aimed at her. She certainly should cover that part of it but I want to know who she thinks set CBS up.