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« New Jersey and Bush: Perfect Together? | Main | Bill Maher: Terrorist Beheadings Aren't Just Barbaric and Horrifying; They're Also Kinda Funny »
September 22, 2004

The Long Knives Are Out for Mary Mapes

Corante (I think) tips that CBS News seems to suddenly be offering up an awful lot of derogatory, well-nigh incriminating, information about Mary Mapes, she who was formerly called a "well-respected journalist" with an "unblemished reputation:"

CBS News executives want to know why Mapes, one of Rather's most trusted producers, repeatedly assured them that both Bill Burkett and the documents he gave her could be trusted — only to have both widely called into question by Internet bloggers and rival news organizations soon after 60 Minutes aired the story. On Monday, CBS said the story should have never run, and Rather apologized to viewers.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Mapes arranged for Burkett to talk to a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.


"Funny, she doesn't look
like a hardcore lefty feminist.

Standard journalistic ethical practices forbid reporters from doing anything that could be perceived as helping a political campaign.

CBS News hopes to name an independent panel today that will investigate how Burkett, a Texas Democratic operative and opponent of President Bush, deceived 60 Minutes in its now-retracted story about Bush's military record — and who at the network is responsible.

"It's clear that something went seriously wrong with the process," CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said. He called the review "both necessary and important."

As Joshua Micah Cougar Mellancamp Marshall would say: I question the timing of these leaks.

He then offers an updated timeline for the DNCBS Rathergate mess in two parts.

I don't want to say they're setting up Mary Mapes as a patsy, but my sources just informed me CBS is planning to move her through an underground police parking garage in Dallas, and that they plan on having fat guys in cowboy hats milling around when they do so.

Fake But Accurate Update: Dan Rather responds to his critics.

Dan Rather Retirement Watch Update:

They're planning on making Mapes the fall-gal and claiming that Dan Rather was just a senile old barking-mad crank who wasn't responsible for the content of this story, which is half-true, of course. (The first half is true.)

Will this work? I don't think so, but firing Mapes and claiming she was the Lando Calrissian on this Bespin betrayal will buy them some time-- some. We may have to wait for the ratings to fall below O'Reilly's to actually get justice-- Ace of Spades Justice.

At the tone, the Dan Rather Retirement Watch displays a time of

(bong)

11:56PM -- the watch clicks one minute back away from midnight

Mary Mapes "I'm Just a Patsy" Watch Update:

At the tone, the Mary Mapes "I'm Just a Patsy" Watch displays a time of

(bong)

12:01AM -- one minute past midnight. She's already gone; the pinkslip is already in the interoffice mail-cart.

Not Exactly A Ringing Endorsement Update: Last Tango hips me to a quote I missed:

"CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius... said that Mapes, 48, remains on CBS' payroll."

"Remains on the payroll"? One can't help but notice the egregiously present-tense form of the verb.

The present-tense here is just the polite form of the past-tense. In Latin, they call it the Pluperfect Patsy Tense, which is sometimes hard to distinguish from the Get Your Partisan Ass Working On Your Resume Tense.


posted by Ace at 11:11 AM
Comments



Will Mary Mapes roll over on CBS and Dan Rather, be fired from CBS, spill her guts, attain the title of whistle blower and then make it big with her autobiography and talk circuit?

Posted by: DelphiGuy on September 22, 2004 11:32 AM

Is it just me..or does anybody else see a resemblance to Eleanor Roosevelt?

I'm just sayin.'

Posted by: lauraw on September 22, 2004 11:50 AM

No doubt Mapes is worried; it's not promising that "CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius... said that Mapes, 48, remains on CBS' payroll."

"Remains on the payroll" is HR legalspeak. One suspects Chairman Moonves does not enjoy discovering that underlings have put him in the hotseat.

Posted by: Lastango on September 22, 2004 11:53 AM

Oh- and I'm not a religious person, but I wanted to share this Inspiring Expression of Faith with you;

"Everything they said about Bush is true; they just haven't found the evidence yet." - Dale Channer, 34, florist, the Bronx.

This man has been SAVED, from the pesky fetters of empirical evidence.

Posted by: lauraw on September 22, 2004 11:53 AM

My Guess;

Mapes is the second line scapegoat (Burkett being the first, of course) in a damage control effort by KE04. Their line is that nutcase Burkett forged the docs and used them as bait to entice Mapes to get him into contact with KE04. That way, then, the extent of KE04's involvement is the phone call from Lockhart to Burkett.

Of course that leaves unanswered questions about the coordination of the AWOL media campaign, as well as evidence that KE04 had the memos by April. But the memos aren't important; the important thing is Bush's failed Iraq war and by the way Bush liiieeed.

Posted by: Thales on September 22, 2004 12:12 PM

Ace,

I think you're correct, Rather just bought himself another minute or three on the retirement watch. This, despite Rather being quoted yesterday that he does not believe the memos to be forgeries!

Wow.

And yes, I think Thales is also correct. Mapes and Burkett will be offered for sacrifice by the DNCBS Central Committee. This of course assumes that Mapes and Burkett will drink the Kool-Aid offered them.

This is a huge gamble for the DNCBS, also assuming that neither Congress or a truly independent agency ever investigates this with the power of subpoena.

Posted by: MeTooThen on September 22, 2004 12:27 PM

I question the timing of SeeBS's leaking of her age.

Posted by: Enas Yorl on September 22, 2004 02:47 PM
Posted by: Joe R. the Unabrewer on September 22, 2004 05:11 PM

"Pluperfect Patsy Tense"

Yeah, my homeschooling kid will have been working on that for a week starting tomorrow. Kind of tricky.

Posted by: SarahW on September 22, 2004 05:17 PM

Fox is reporting Mapes got in serious trouble 3 years ago for offering a white supremacist in prison a deal in exchange for an interview.

She was banned from ever going into Federal Prisons again for interviews after her stunt.

The quid pro quo was she would take give the inmate a CBS address he could write a priveledged letter to (prison staff can't open letters directed to lawyers or official media), then she would mail the letter to another white supremacist at another prison under the "priviledged" status of a CBS media letter that can't be opened.

Prison staff surrupticiously (but legally) monitoring her conversation with the convict uncovered the plot. A letter of banning and admonition was written to her and her CBS supervisors. (Not inc. Dan, but another high exec guy who has been defending Mapes as a super ethical reporter in all the MSM was identified.

Posted by: Cedarford on September 22, 2004 07:24 PM

Cedarford--

I did a story on a work-release center years ago. For some reason, an inmate decided to tell me his woes one afternoon, how life at the center was unfair, etc. I felt sorry for him. The next day the warden asked me why I was talking to the guy. The whole place was bugged.

Now that was when I was in college, age 22. Presumably Mapes would know better at age 45. Guess not.

Posted by: Fresh Air on September 22, 2004 10:22 PM
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