For CBS News, Les Moonves says Thornburg report is "No White-Wash" for Dan Rather's Memogate-RatherGate; Eye-Wash removes Mary Mapes and three other blemishes from SeeBS Eye.

Jan. 10, 2005 #01.

For CBS News, Les Moonves says Thornburg report is "No White-Wash" for Dan Rather's Memogate-RatherGate; Eye-Wash removes Mary Mapes and three other blemishes from SeeBS Eye.

Today, CBS News released the much-awaited "report" on the broadcast of forged documents by CBS News, 60 Minutes II, and Dan Rather alleging a number of instances of serious misconduct by, and on behalf of, George W. Bush in the course of his service in the Air National Guard. As expected, neither the Report nor CBS makes any attempt to explain why CBS News, 60 Minutes and Dan Rather utterly lacked interest in the widely-known, undisputed fact that John Kerry had refused to sign the same kind of authorization signed by Bush to permit and require the military to release all of his medical records. Can you say "partisanship"? How many times did CBS describe an un-named critic of Kerry associated with organizations that preferred Bush over Kerry as an "unimpeachable [but anonymous] source" in "reporting" assertions of self-evident flaws or contradictions in Kerry's record? Can you say "never"? How many pro-Bush sources did they discount or ignore as "partisan" in proceeding full-steam ahead with the 60-Minutes hatchet job claiming Bush was AWOL from his Air National Guard duties and received unwarranted and unusual "favorable" treatment? Can you say "every time"? Was this the first time that Rather presented his partisan views and/or suspicions as "news"? Of course not-- Just ask Judge Cudahy.

CBS fired Mary Mapes, producer of the report aired Sept. 8 on "60 Minutes Wednesday"; Josh Howard, executive producer of the show; his top deputy Mary Murphy; and senior vice president Betsy West. Moonves had appointed former Republican Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and Louis D. Boccardi, retired president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press, to investigate what went wrong. The panel said Mapes had misled her superiors about the documents and the background of her source, retired Texas National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, who furnished fraudulent documents purporting to be those of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian purporting to accuse Bush of disobeying orders and being AWOL in the final year of his Air National Guard service. In firing Mapes, Howard, Murphy, and West, they washed four specks from the SeeBS Eye leaving a Rather large beam still in the Eye.
How many times did the dominant media express outrage at what they described as the "partisanship" of Sinclair Broadcasting's proposal to present an film critical of John Kerry to be followed by equal time for John Kerry? How many times did the dominant media even bother to characterize as "partisanship" the dogged efforts by Dan Rather and CBS News to cling to claims of "truth" in its hatchet-job on Bush long after everyone else on the planet had recognized the story to have been fraudulent? Can you say "none"? Remember how often and stridently the dominant-media pot called the Sinclair kettle "black"?

How many times did the dominant media attempt to discredit the Swift Boat Veterans opposed to Kerry? Can you say "at least dozens"? How many times did the dominant media conduct a 60-Minutes-like "exposé" of why and how Kerry was able to successfully repress dissemination of his own 70's-era, anti-military book? Can you say "none"? How many times did the dominant media publish show pictures of Bush in the Air National Guard while reporting "questions" about his service? Can you say "dozens"? How many times did the dominant media show pictures of the front-cover of Kerry's 1970's book with hippies raising the American flag upside-down in a manner to mock the Iwo Jima Memorial? Can you say "none"? How many times did the media suggest that Bush and/or an underling at the Pentagon wasn't really trying to release "all" the documents pertaining to his Air National Guard Service? Can you say "at least dozens"? How many times did the media suggest that the reason John Kerry had failed to sign the same kind of records-release authorization signed by Bush was because Kerry had "something to hide"? Can you say "none"?

How many times did Nightline attempt to set-up John Kerry or Douglas Brinkley to appear on Nightline following interviews with Viet Cong survivors contradicting key elements of Kerry's version of the incident according to Kerry's official biographer, Douglas Brinkley? Can you say "none"? How many times did Nightline attempt to set-up John O'Neill to appear on Nightline following interviews with Viet Cong survivors purporting to "contradict" John O'Neill's accurate quotation of Kerry's version of the disputed incident according to Kerry's official biographer, Douglas Brinkley? Can you say, "Nightline did that on October 15, 2004"?

--Jim Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com.

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Jan. 10, 2005 #01 Daily Update at PoliSat.Com, where satire is always commentary, but commentary isn't always satire.™