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Today's Top News
The Apology Bush Owes Dan Rather
CBS pandered to the Republican party by giving its anchorman the boot for revealing the truth about the president's war record
As George Bush shuffles off to a long absence that is not only with leave but with a heartfelt global sentiment that it is long overdue, he leaves behind a lot of unfinished business. One wonders whether, just in case, he will smuggle in a pardon for himself for his technical desertion and very definite absence without leave from the Texas Air National Guard.
What is really in order is some sort of pardon and apology to Dan Rather, who CBS's cowardly management squeezed from 60 Minutes for telling the truth about Bush's war record. Rather's suit against them, with its accompanying subpoenas, has now revealed that in their eagerness to throw a sacrificial victim to the swiftboating bloggers with their escorting media sharks, CBS management actually considered such paragons of journalistic objectivity as Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, William Kristol, William Safire and William Buckley for the investigating panel. Their concern was to counter the "reputation" of the network's liberal bias.
In the end, they settled on Dick Thornburgh, the Republican former attorney general appointed by the deserter-in-chief's dad, although apparently Roger Ailes, Fox News's brain was also under consideration.
Indeed, since they discussed the composition of this panel with the Republican party and Viacom's Washington lobbyists, it may even have been Republican operatives who had the good sense to realise that a Limbaugh or Coulter may not have the desired "reputation" of objectivity and credibility.
The investigation carefully did not consider the veracity of the charges against Bush, simply the provenance of the scrap of paper, but by the time it was over, many people who should have known better assumed that the story of Bush's desertion was refuted.
In fact, the evidence was compelling. Many others, myself included in my book, Deserter, had proved that George Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard with nepotistic backing in order to avoid service in Vietnam, a war that he agreed with. And then he went missing and failed to fulfill the terms of his service, an offence for which other less well-connected people were going to prison or being drafted to the jungle.
Let us consider the sins of Rather. Firstly, he admitted openly what everyone knew – that anchormen are performers not journalists. Secondly, 60 Minutes pandered to the television need for a McGuffin to wave around. However, it is still not proven that the memo under consideration was a forgery. What has been proven beyond doubt was that the information in it was accurate. The very secretary who said that she had not typed that particular piece of paper attested that she had typed exactly that same message.
The kindest explanation for CBS, other than outright political complicity, is that it paid the Danegeld, yet again, to keep the conservative hordes off its back by pandering to the Republican party. In a sense, it was not unique since most of the media were in post-9/11, post-Iraq mode mesmerised into thinking that any criticism of the Bush administration was treachery in the face of the enemy. It is not as if the Democratic benches hosted a swelling chorus of dissent either.
Rupert Murdoch cited the case last week: "Far from celebrating this citizen journalism, the establishment media reacted defensively. During an appearance on Fox News, a CBS executive attacked the bloggers in a statement that will go down in the annals of arrogance. '60 Minutes,' he said, was a professional organisation with 'multiple layers of checks and balances'. By contrast, he dismissed the blogger as 'a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing'. But eventually it was the guys sitting in their pajamas who forced Mr Rather and his producer to resign."
No it was not. It was because the "mainstream media" – not least Murdoch's – took up the bloggers against Rather and amplified their case. In a sense, this defines the essence of swiftboating as an Olympic event. The bloggers, backed by Fox, the rightwing talk radio jocks and the editorial pages of the WSJ with their hangers-on at the Standard, National Review etc, will conjure up a perfect storm of vituperation against their target, be it Kerry, Kofi Annan, or Dan Rather, and put everyone on the defensive. The technique is to generate so much smoke that no one notices that there is no fire.
But for some reason the evidence against Bush, abounding in small and regional publications and on the web, was not taken up with the same assiduity. So much for Murdoch's concern for blogs – and for CBS's journalistic standards in the face of its owner Viacom's need to keep in with the Bush White House.
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26 Comments so far
Show AllAnd even now, as history prepares to shove The Great Asshole out the door, you will not hear a peep from the MSM about the cowardliness of George Wanker Bush. He is truly The Yellow Rose of Texas.
Mordechai, I have to disagree.
Gertrude Stein said "A rose is a rose is a rose", and Shakespeare or somebody else famous said "A rose by any other name smells as sweet".
Neither of those applies to Bush, who is pure skunk cabbage--a plant widely available throughout the West.
Maybe ragwort is more appropriate.
George Wanker Bush is known to take ragwort to cure hangovers.
Better yet, common Water Hemlock...
---USAn---
For George Bush I'd choose Stapelia Gigantia, the Carrion Plant. That's for what he's done in Iraq.
I live in the west and we have been eating a lot of skunk cabbage these last 8 years. You betcha. It's really good with German asparagus. a Bush favorite.
“A rose by any other name would smell … and so do you.” So said Larry back to Moe…
I dont recall there beign a single successful Vietcong attack on any military drinking establishment in either Tenessee or Texas during Junior's tenure there...Mission Accomplished!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Greg Palast,
Covered the AWOL and Chief's 18 missing man movements between months between May of '72 and October of '73 and his report is more hard hitting than Rather's. Check out Greg Palast's report 'Tased and Confused' here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-rather-tased-and-confused/
Yes, Bush owes Dan Rather an apology, but Dan Rather got his just deserts. The movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” showed Congressman Wilson began his campaign for Afghanistan after seeing Dan Rather’s supposed report from the front lines. He was not, however, at the front lines. The entire report had been staged in the California desert, as he admitted some few years later. The CIA budget of $5 million dollars at that time as the movie shows was in fact well spent as it was used to delude the Congress and right-wing moguls into raising money for that cause. The movie should have been called “The Founding of Al Qaeda” because, although the movie neglects to mention it, Al Qaeda was the name of the camp created for training in that war. Nevertheless in all the eulogies for Dan Rather’s career, although everyone mentioned the report from Afghanistan, which was reproduced at length in Time and Newsweek, no one mentioned his belated revelation that the entire report had been staged in California.
I have to assume that the MSM will continue to pay homage to whatever the right wingnuts have on the table at any given time. They will collectively try to do their level best to make the new administration miserable every step of the way. It seems to be the 'american way.' What a shame that the efforts are not for the best interests of America, but what is best for their own private interests. Speaking truths to power is the name of the game and not for the faint of heart..kudos to Dan Rather for holding on to his integridy. It will be a long, long time before there is a replacement for him.
I'm going right out now and buying myself a 'bush jacket' (ironic isn't it)so I can look more like Rather..I was SURE that 'scrap of paper' was authentic...I got a little preferential treatment in the Army myself..and had no connections like G.W.'s.
Now that Obama has assured us that Democratic Party capitulation that Nancy Pelosi institutionalized two years ago (impeachment off the table) is here to stay, the Dubya Regime doesn't need to apologize to anybody.
Bring back Dad Rather. He has learned from his experience with cbs..
The cbs ratings would go as high as the Obama Family night..on 60 minutes..
Bust the media monopolies.
Now if we must castigate one person for undue use of influence we must castigate all or else we are nothing but hypocrites.
Did Al Gore serve in Vietnam? Yes, he did. He spent five months there as a reporter/journalist.
"Mr. Gore enlisted in the Army on Aug. 7, 1969, reporting to Fort Dix, N.J. He was based at Fort Rucker, Ala., working as an information specialist. For a reason neither he nor the military can explain, Mr. Gore would remain at Fort Rucker for a lengthy period awaiting orders." "When they finally came, he would spend less than five months in Vietnam, arriving on Jan. 8, 1971, to write newspaper and magazine articles in Saigon. He was discharged on May 24, 1971.
If people believe that those who enlisted in the National Guard "got in" because of preferential treatment, then they should acknowledge that Gore also received preferential treatment. If people conclude that entrance to the National Guard was based on preference, then they should acknowledge that it may not just be a coincidence that Al Gore, son of Senator Al Gore, landed a spot as a journalist for five months.
A five month stay in Vietnam is less than half the normal tour. Gore asked for and received an "early out".
If people want to talk about draft dodgers, perhaps they ought to start a discourse about Bill Clinton.
George W. Bush's military service began in 1968 when he enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard after graduating with a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University. The aircraft he was ultimately trained to fly was the F-102 Delta Dagger, popularly known as "the Deuce." The F-102 may have been old but was far from useless, and it continued to serve in large numbers with both Air Force and Air National Guard units well into the 1970s. Furthermore, the F-102 was deployed to Vietnam throughout most of the conflict.
The Air National Guard has often been ridiculed as a safe place for military duty during the Vietnam War. However, pilots from the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, as it was called at the time, were actually conducting combat missions in Vietnam when Bush enlisted. Air Force F-102 squadrons had been stationed in Thailand since 1961 and South Vietnam since March 1962.
The F-102 is still far more dangerous to fly than today's combat aircraft. Compared to the F-102's lifetime accident rate of 13.69, today's planes generally average around 4 mishaps per 100,000 hours. For example, compare the F-16 at 4.14, the F-15 at 2.47, the F-117 at 4.07 and the F-18 at 4.9. Even the Marine Corps' AV-8B, regarded as the most dangerous aircraft in US service today, has a lifetime accident rate of only 11.44 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours. The F-102 claimed the lives of many pilots, including a number stationed at Ellington during Bush's tenure. Of the 875 F-102A production models that entered service, 259 were lost in accidents that killed 70 Air Force and ANG pilots.
Bush was honorably discharged from the Air National Guard in October 1973 at the rank of first lieutenant. An ANG physical dated 15 May 1971 indicates that he had logged 625 flight hours by that time, and he ultimately completed 326 hours as pilot and 10 as co-pilot while serving with the 111th FIS in Texas.
Now much has been made of bush missing some training drills, what surprises me is that apparently no one checked to see if he had doubled up on any of the drills he did attend. In the NG if you double up on some drills you can be excused from later ones. I'm not saying that bush DID double up, I'm just saying it's odd that everyone is looking at the pay records of his missed drills and not ALL his pay records. After all the Air force does not give an honorable discharge to someone who is AWOL no matter who their father is.
Dan Rather also needs to apologize to the entire USAn people for all his earlier faithful service to Bush as his chief war propagandist from late 2001 to 2004.
---USAn---
abdosoliman46
let us be glad that we manged to get rid of much worth fabricator ,maverick war hero reformer and also who promised to live and send us to war for 100 more years. not to mention his hotti wink wink ice queen !
All of the information Rather reported on 60 Minutes in 2004 re Bush's Air Guard service had already been reported in a series of articles in the Boston Globe prior to the 2000 election. I was surprised neither Rather nor his fired producers cited those multiply-sourced investigative pieces by the Globe's Walter Robinson to bolster their argument that their reporting was right, and the copied documents given Rather by retired TANG-USAF LTC Bill Burkett were never proven to be forgeries. (In fact, it's nearly impossible to prove copied documents are forgeries.)
"1-Year Gap in Bush's Guard Duty"
Boston Globe, May 23, 2000.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2000/05/23/1_year_gap_in_bushs_guard_duty
Some might also want to read this:
"According to records released by the White House, he [Bush] apparently skipped service in 1972 from April 16 to Oct. 28. In 2000, William Turnipseed, a retired brigadier general, told the Boston Globe, 'Had he reported in I would have had some recall and I do not.' Still, Bush received credit for his attendance. He then returned to Texas where two of his superior officers said they couldn't give him annual evaluations because he hadn't shown up.
"So why did he receive an honorable discharge, a fact the president will repeat every day, from now until November?
"Grant Lattin, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who once served as judge advocate and is now a Washington military law attorney, explained to Salon.com's Eric Boehlert, 'Somebody could have missed a year's worth of Guard drills and still end up with an honorable discharge.' That's because, says Lattin, 'the National Guard is extremely political. ... If George Bush junior is in your unit, you're going to bend over backward not to offend that family. It all comes down to who you know.'"
-- From the San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 13, 2004.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/12/EDGLU4TQVG1.DTL
Bush Watch/ Bush AWOL: http://www.bushwatch.com/awol.htm
Juicy Bits Surfacing in Rather Case: In 2004, CBS Considered Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter Independent Panel
By Felix Gillette, NY Observer, Nov. 6, 2008.
http://www.observer.com/2008/media/juicy-bits-surfacing-rather-case-2004-cbs-considered-matt-drudge-rush-limbaugh-ann-coulte?page=2
And then there's this from CNN:
"The founder of the group Texans for Truth said Tuesday that he is offering $50,000 to anyone who can prove President Bush fulfilled his service requirements, including required duties and drills, in the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972."
-- "Group offers $50,000 for proof of Bush service"
CNN, Sept. 14, 2004.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/14/bush.texans/index.html
No one ever collected that $50,000.
Dan Rather was always one of my favorite Journalists on TV. I was appalled that CBS let him go over such a matter. In my opinion, he was certainly shafted by CBS. I think all those at CBS who were in on axing him should be fired for this obvious politicized attack. Dan should again be the face of CBS news and not Katie.
jerbo49 November 20th, 2008 8:10 am, sometimes you have to follow the money in this kind of event. Viacom owns CBS, and Viacom was headed by Sumner Redstone, an avid supporter of George W. Bush in 2004, thanks to the personal and corporate tax cuts the Bush Regime afforded him and his various businesses, and because Viacom wanted changes in the FCC regulations to expand its media empire.
With that kind of money and influence in the mix, even Dan Rather was expendable.
How sad is it that the network that used to give Edward R. Murrow & Walter Cronkite a platform bent over, grabbed its ankles, and let itself be reamed by the Bush crime family, losing one of their most talented on-air reporters in the process. This shameful episode is a hallmark example of why their audience is fleeing them in droves for alternative news sources.
"Probitas laudatur et alget" Juvenal
www.wunderman-comics.com
When the 'news' has been turned into entertainment rather than an attempt (always flawed) to present the facts and truth then there is no credibility. All reporters are subject to error when looking for the truth. Hannity, O Reilly, Rush (drug addict) only make errors in the size of the lies they tell. Typically you get caught in the small lies.
Rather was better than many who try to be fair reporters. He deserved better protection for telling the truth.
I'd RATHER see someone else!
Funk BUSH and Rat-her
Do you think that any one in the Crass Media tells the TRUTH?
They do what they're told.
They read from a script.
They're paid
FAUX MEDIA
PROPAGANDA
Pushing
Prostitutes.
Once your join the Company you just can't leave.
Their Control is complete.
Chemical
Verbal
Visual
Physically addictive
Repetitive
Garbage.
A chorus of parrots
Spew
Rovien
BU__! SH__!
24 X 7 X FOREVER!
So much for Free this and Free that,
The only thing free is,
Open season
On
Sheep.
I would not bet on Mr. Bush apologizing FOR ANYTHING he has done either before he became the most powerful "monkey" on the planet----or before.
Mr. Rather told the truth, to a nation of people who did not want to hear it. A nation of people who thrive on lies and falsehoods and consequently suffer a
"National Delusion of Greatness".............when in reality they have had 232 years to rise to that occasion of "greatness"----and they have failed, with very few exceptions.
His bosses were "stroking the established order" when they fired him for telling the truth---after all, why would anyone expect less from such sleazy people anyway, and after all, "Monkey see Monkey do".
Mr. Rather has the rarely known experience of having been right, and being punished for it----then being found innocent of falsehoods. He will receive his just rewards: millions of US Dollars, in settlement, which by the way is TAX FREE.
My only advise to him would be to convert those US Dollars to Euros--as quickly as possible after the "pay day"------------because the USA is most likely "on the way out" and those US Dollars will have the same value as Monopoly Money.
Good luck America, you really need it.