Les Jones

Media Behaving Badly > Report from the Rathergate Commission

Mary Mapes set out to bring down George Bush and instead she's the one losing her job. In case anyone's forgotten, that's the definition of irony. The statement from CBS News chief Leslie Moonves spells out Mapes' role in all of this. Here's an excerpt:

As far as the question of reporting is concerned, the bottom line is that much of the September 8th broadcast was wrong, incomplete or unfair. The Panel found that the producer of the segment, Mary Mapes, ignored information that cast doubt on the story she had set out to report � that President Bush had received special treatment more than 30 years ago, getting into the Guard ahead of many other applicants, and had done so to avoid service in Vietnam. As the Panel found, statements made by sources were ignored, as were notes in Mapes� own files.

Most troubling, however, are the Panel�s findings regarding Mapes� ongoing contention, later proven to be false, that the documents used in the story were thoroughly authenticated and had been obtained from an �impeccable� source who had established, in retrospect, a questionable chain of custody for them. Beyond that were the evident misrepresentations of statements made to her by sources who later disavowed them. The Panel also found that Mapes presented half-truths as facts to those with whom she worked. And they trusted her, relied on her impressive reputation and proven track record, and did not hold her to the high standards of accountability that have always been the backbone of CBS News reporting.

Dan Rather got off easy, largely because he's already announced his retirement. Amazingly, Rather didn't want to apologize, and still believes in the original documents (from page 208 of the report):

The Panel asked Rather about his interview with Marcia Kramer. Rather said that he did not want to do the interview or the apology on September 20, but Heyward and Schwartz asked him to do so. Rather said that he made his case as to why an apology was not appropriate and that management did not agree with him. Rather agreed to do the apology on September 20 and the Marcia Kramer interview because he is a �team player.� Rather informed the Panel that he still believes the content of the documents is true because �the facts are right on the money,� and that no one had provided persuasive evidence that the documents were not authentic.

It is clear that Rather�s joining in the apology given his role as the correspondent on the Segment and his status as CBS News� most visible presence was critical to its acceptance. The Panel finds his comments disavowing the apology to be troubling, notwithstanding that he said he regarded himself as carrying out what CBS News felt was in its best interest on September 20.

RatherBiased has good coverage, and I guess this will just about do it for those guys. I imagine they won't mind moving on to other things.