Puff Piece

Yesterday the WaPo ran this piece on CBS producer Mary Mapes.

How does the WaPo treat the story over which Mapes presided, which led to the scandal that has gut-shot CBS News?

It starts with the story in question, which aired Sept. 8, on the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes." In that report, Rather charged that President Bush had received preferential treatment in the National Guard in the early 1970s, and used as evidence copies of memos that had been provided to the network by a confidential source. Almost immediately, both the validity of the memos and the credibility of the source -- who later would be revealed as retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett -- came under attack. After days of defending the story, Rather made an on-air apology on Sept. 20, stating that a "mistake in judgment" had been made, and that Burkett had lied to the network. CBS did not go so far as to acknowledge the documents as forgeries; instead, it simply stated that it couldn't confirm they were not.

Not a word about blogs, incidentally, but never mind - the point is the way the major media are closing ranks around their own.

Read the piece. It's a gauzy, soft-focus piece which soft-pedals accusations of Mapes' rank bias in favor of endless testimonials to her excellence.

Expect her to be beatified by the end of the year.

Posted by Mitch at October 5, 2004 05:26 AM | TrackBack