Tuesday, October 27, 2015

"Truth." I have every intention of watching this movie, and I think perhaps you should as well.

Courtesy of the 5 Minute Movie Guide:

When Mary Mapes a senior Producer at CBS who was responsible for the prestigious 60 Minutes TV Program led by veteran newsman Dan Rather, got wind of a potential story about Bush managing to avoid even his easy stint with the Guard, she started a whole investigation. With the approval of the Network's bosses, and encouraged by Rather, she got together a small very experienced team to check out documents purportedly from the files of Bush's commanding officer, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B Killian that confirmed that Bush had been been AWOL for most of his alleged military service. Mapes had learned that the then-Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes had admitted making phone calls to get Bush into the Guard, as he claimed to have done for the children of several other influential Texans. The story was that Bush had received preferential treatment in passing over hundreds of applicants to enlist in the Texas Air National Guard in order to avoid being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam after he had graduated from Yale in 1968. 

When the 60 Minute team had gathered substantial evidence supporting the claims their aired their findings in a special edition of their show, but before Rather and Mapes could even celebrate their major news coup, they were immediately subject to some to some very virulent criticism. It all focused on the actual authenticity of the documents that they had received from Bill Burkett, who was a retired Lt. Colonel with the Guard. Suddenly there was a very aggressive and effective campaign mounted to discredit the entire 60 Minute Team by some very influential and important political figures simply by rubbishing the validity of the evidence. It eventually resulted in Rather prematurely ending his distinguished career in disgrace and ignominy, and Mapes and her entire team being fired.

One of the things that I find fascinating about this whole episode was the revelation that Mary Maples had been in possession of this story back in 2000, BEFORE George W. was ever elected President, and did not pursue it due to the death of her mother.

Just imagine how different the world might have been if this story had come out before Bush was President, and had so many tools to suppress damaging stories at his disposal.

If you are looking for deep background on the allegations made about W's National Guard service, and the aggressive attacks that were launched to discredit Dan Rather and his team, you can visit Who, What, Why and read more about it here and here.

For the record I watched this whole thing unfold and have ALWAYS believed that Dan Rather was completely right in his reporting, and that what happened to him was one of the most shameful things to happen in American journalism.

30 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:13 AM

    AMEN.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:13 AM

    OT-Some REAL truth:
    http://www.salon.com/2015/10/27/white_america_will_ignore_this_video_the_hideous_predictable_violence_of_our_schools_our_legal_system_our_society/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:30 AM

      PIG BULLY!
      http://news.yahoo.com/south-carolina-officer-s-history-comes-to-light-after-shocking-video-goes-viral-160400548.html

      Delete
  3. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Who what why Is BIG. Russ Baker wrote "Family of Secrets".
    Jesse, do some research on that and you will uncover the whole steaming pile. You know how to reach me.
    Margot

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. abbafan3:56 PM

      Absolutely Margot! Mr. Baker's book was quite the eye-opener for me! Wow, the tentacles really reached far and wide! All the way from Prescott to Dubya, the money and influence-peddling is staggering!

      Delete
  4. Anonymous9:30 AM

    Yours and nakedcapitalism are the last true liberal blogs out there..keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:25 AM

      >>the last true liberal blogs out there

      Damn, you must not get around much:

      Liberals Unite, the 24 hour new magazine for discerning liberals.

      http://samuel-warde.com/

      http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/

      http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/

      http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/

      http://www.liberalamerica.org/

      http://littlegreenfootballs.com/

      http://rightwingcrooks.blogspot.com/

      http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

      and that's just a handful at quick glance.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous9:33 AM

    Second that, Gryph!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:48 AM

    I wish Rachel Maddow could do a follow-up segment on this Bush issue.. She has Dan Rather on her show off and on and I always think how nice it is to see and hear him again.

    It would be good having Rather's story proven accurate before he leaves this earth. He did not deserve losing his career over a Bush!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:43 AM

      Dan Rather was a respected journalist trashed by Rove and the despicable Bush family for telling the truth. I would love to have his name cleared completely. W was AWOL, that was true. Entitled little bow legged, cross eyed low life.

      Delete
    2. abbafan4:04 PM

      It's no big secret how the spin-doctors went to work in destroying Mr. Rather's career. He was one of the last old-school journalists who was not afraid to seek the truth! I saw him in an interview on CBC TV here in Canada not long ago, and he pulled no punches in how he felt! It's too bad that his career was blind-sided by powerful forces behind the scenes. He felt very comfortable here in Canada; however, he knew his reputation was ruined Stateside!

      Delete
  7. Anonymous10:17 AM

    I couldn't believe this was the same Mary Mapes I grew up with in a small town in W. WA. Her family was republican, big time. That could be part of the reason she waited until her mother's death. I always thought she and Dan Rather were being railroaded. I too would like to see this story proven accurate for the sake of both their careers.

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  8. Anonymous10:28 AM

    Dan Rather was swift boated, plain and simple. He is owed an enormous apology from the Bushies. He'll never get it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sharon10:38 AM

    This is a no brainer.....if these people could steal the election twice, get us into a war for no reason, this was child's play for them. I would not trust any of these people if they said today was Tuesday. American democracy=money=power. I would love to see Dan Rather cleared...what better time with another Bush trying his best to lie his way out of his brothers lies.

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  10. Anonymous10:46 AM

    Would love to see all the Bush lies come out while Poppy Bush is lucid enough to absorb the truth. The entire family should go down in flames.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:45 AM

      I think time has run out on that, have you seen Poppy lately? Seems to have a grimace frozen on his face.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:54 AM

    REAL JOURNALISM AGAIN!
    http://www.politicususa.com/2015/10/27/fox-news-ratings-plunge-rachel-maddows-viewership-grows-31.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous11:01 AM

    Saw on national news that Poppy Bush gets so mad at Trump attacking Jeb! that he wants to throw a shoe through the TV screen....wonder where his outrage about the dead and maimed that W caused is?
    Also heard them stating that Jeb! will be president. Eerily like the statement that W would take FL. Like the fix is in!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous11:02 AM

    It has always offended me that this chickenshit attacked Kerry's service.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous11:06 AM

    Lucky us in NC. We just got Margaret Spellings appointed as president of UNC. She comes to the presidency of the oldest and most prestigious public university in the USA with the stellar credentials of a single bachelor's degree, authoring "no child left behind", working for the Bush's all her life--in part as Secretary of Ed., and being the former wife of Robert Spellings who has a big part in this story according to the links.

    Looks as if the political payoffs continue in an effort to keep the true story behind closed doors.

    ReplyDelete
  15. AKRNHSNC11:20 AM

    I have no doubt the story is true and have heard it from someone who was fairly well-known at one time in the GOP although he was behind the scenes. The reason they knew immediately that the documents weren't real is because they destroyed the real ones. That's the only way they could be certain.

    Bush told so many different versions of his alleged fulfilling of his NG contract and none of them can be or have been verified as true. It makes me ill when I think of him sending NG forces to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq without the proper training or equipment and then withholding benefits from them for the same. I hope he and Cheney rot in hell for the evil they perpetuated on this country and others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I totally agree with you AkRNHSNC. My ex retired as a BG in the NG. We had many things we didn't agree about but his service in the NG was never one of them. It is one of the things I am proud of his doing. And there are not many.

      Delete
    2. It's possible to accept that Bush's ANG service wasn't what he claimed it to be, and still accept those memos were fakes. Just putting it out there.

      As your second link says, Burkett first lied to Mapes about who his source was, and then when that lie was exposed, claimed an anonymous Hispanic woman's male companion handed them to him instead. Please. Burkett was obsessed with Bush's service: either Burkett was fooling Mapes, or Burkett himself wanted this so bad he set himself up to be fooled.

      I can believe Bush really was AWOL and still have no doubt Burkett and the 60 Minutes crew behind Rather just simply wanted evidence to hurt Bush too bad in the end to exercise sufficient critical judgment. I don't doubt they sincerely believed it. But they did get conned.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous11:26 AM

    Fox News Ratings Plunge As Rachel Maddow’s Viewership Grows By 31%

    http://www.politicususa.com/2015/10/27/fox-news-ratings-plunge-rachel-maddows-viewership-grows-31.html

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous12:30 PM

    I haven't looked at the links in your story yet so I don't know if one of them references an article in Salon that I came across last week. In the article there may be evidence that George Bush never completed the requirements for service that he signed up for. In other words, he left his enlistment early because he didn't want to fly anymore. I think that's called AWOL but what he did may have been criminal, after all the money spent on training him.

    I guess he was lucky to have a father with influence within the government. Same goes for Neal who should've gotten jail time for his savings and loan fiasco.

    http://www.salon.com/2015/10/17/george_w_bushs_military_lies_the_real_story_about_the_undeniable_service_gaps_he_got_away_with/

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:39 PM

      And his brother Marvin, who was in charge of security for the buildings when they were hit with the planes. They are really a bunch of criminals.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous2:32 PM

    Shades of "The Insider," but worth a watch.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous4:08 PM

    I'm in. This type of movie is one of my favorite genres. Exposing Bush's lies, charmed life of privilege and family connections that handed him the presidency.
    Dan Rather was and is a true journalist who got shafted by the truth behind the weasel.
    Reminds me of "Newsroom"

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  20. Anonymous5:33 PM

    I stopped watching new shows on CBS when they screwed over Dan Rather.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Me too.

    They had no justification for treating Rather so disrespectfully.

    I think it was the right's war on the media, prior to them simply taking it over.

    ReplyDelete

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