I agree. And I was starting a post for my blog tomorrow on the same subject... CBS is trying to do the Modified Limited Hangout and sacrifice NO one. Not Rather. Not Heyward, not even Mapes.

We in the blogosphere have been resting on our laurels for the last several days. Time to get after it. Forget the affiliates, go for advertisers. ("Go for the eyes, Boo!")

Um, I wish to point out that Rathergate has a new affiliate e-mail going, at: http://www.rathergate.com/index.php?p=190

I completely agree. It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings, from behind bars.

CBS is hoping their faux apology and this investigation will buy them some time...and then hoping the whole thing just kind of fades away, with a boring, tedious report released and no one caring anymore.

It is up to we the people to make sure that CBS does not get away with this...what they have tried to do is indefensible. They literally tried to steal an election, and colluded with the Kerry campaign.

This is not only Rathergate, this is Kerrygate.

One thing we also need to do: while we pursue Rathergate, we need to make sure we don't get distracted from reelecting Bush and defeating Kerry, and all of the efforts that contribute to that.

while we pursue Rathergate, we need to make sure we don't get distracted from reelecting Bush and defeating Kerry, and all of the efforts that contribute to that.

Wrong. Your focus on the election invalidates your criticism in the eyes of many of the people who matter in holding CBS into account.

Why would you want to play into CBS's hands by exposing your motivation as strictly partisan?

In the unlikley scenario where this would hurt the Bush campaign, it should still be pursued. There are things that are more important than winning an election at all costs, most notably the successful and fair function of the fourth estate in our Democracy.

If we don't recognize this, then we're no better than the partisan apologists for CBS on the left.

It's also too soon to directly implicate that the Kerry campaign knew that the docs were fake; this is why supoena power is essential. As it is, they certainly had knowledge of the documents themselves; whether they knew that they were forgeries is a matter that is yet to be determined.

I was thinking the other day that the AP's Tom Hays is the luckiest hack on the face of the earth. Just as people were calling for his head over the "Bush booed" story (http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/007712.php),
Rathergate erupted, and the story disappeared.

The Freeper folks seem to think Hays is a patsy for the real culprits (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1208293/posts). Whatever. IT STILL OUGHT TO BE A STORY. In the wake of Rathergate, it ought to be MORE of a story, not less. Perhaps people are still dogging the AP over this, and it's escaped my radar, but I'd like to see the AP hung out to dry on the same clothesline as CBS. In an election this close, such lies are unconscionable distractions from the real issues facing our nation.

This goes way, way beyond politics. I've viciously attacked Bush on my site for his views on various issues, but what Rather did (and is doing) is a violent threat to public discourse. I suspect the FCC would pull their license if they ran stories claiming that sugar water cures cancer week after week, and put up bogus "experts" to shoot down any "partisan political operatives" or "pharmaceutical industry lobbyists" who disagreed. I don't see a bit of difference between that, and what the network actually did. If the Janet Jackson nipple incident deserves a $550,000 fine, for its damage to the public, I don't have a calculator with enough digits to calculate the penalty for their current ongoing criminal fraud.

To the mattresses!

No news organization should get away with this scale of malpractice with an equivocating half-apology.

We acted as soon as Dan, his producers and the network head expressed faith in their own sloppy journalism and continued to insist the memos were genuine when it was clear they were suspect. (In hindsight, they'd already been told by experts the memos were suspect - which now makes their lack of action all the more outrageous)

We let the affiliate know all its programming was blocked from our tuners.

My husband let them know he won't be buying any more advertising time on that station or any other CBS affiliated station, unless and until CBS news fully admits its wrong, accounts for it, and punishes it.

Chris Matthews is interviewing Mike Isikoff right now about how CBS bumped a piece about the U.S. being duped by forged documents (purporting to document uranium sales to Iraq) in favor of the National Guard story. If they ever run it -- and it's an important story -- how could they possibly convince anybody that the government should have detected the deception? With Marcel Matley?

I was starting to feel depressed, claustrophobic, until I read Jim Garaghty’s post. He said exactly, exactly what I wanted SOMEBODY to say. This is the time to press on harder than ever. I think that Rather & Mapes from the start knew or strongly suspected that the memos were forged. They took Burkett’s changing of his story about their source, as an opportunity to reduce the growing pressure against them. And without a doubt, many of us, especially the bloggers, needed a brief respite. But I feared that the brief respite would lead to the reduced pressure which Rather, Mapes, & the others sought. I’m so glad Garaghty is calling all to arms. Now’s the time to press on, press on, press the advantage. (You know the leftists would!)

And the Don Corleone–Johnny Fontane comparison is hilarious.

I totally agree that this issue non-partisan and is an attack on the core of our representative democracy.

It is critical that the matter be pursued legally and that some jail time be served by the guilty party(ies), otherwise forgeries will be viewed as fair game in any future politcal campaign. These type of actions always escalate unless a forceful stop is apllied.

A third major thing needs to happen, as well.

CBS must, in plain clear language, retract the story in its entirety. The word "retract" must figure prominently when they do.

Until that happens, it's all CYA and weasel words.

Bill: I think I've been misinterpreted, perhaps because of my clumsy choice of words. There's nothing you wrote in your reply to mine that I disagree with.

I'm not suggesting that pursuing Rathergate be turned into a partisan affair; quite the contrary, it is important to focus on the fact that this is a nonpartisan issue.

My point only is that for those of us also have partisan inclinations, we should not necessarily allow this to consume our focus. I live in Florida and am active in the crucial GOTV effort, for instance, and I can't allow my interest with this story to substract from the business of reelecting Bush, IMHO. Because we feel strongly about Rathergate, doesn't mean we abandon political preferences.

So my post perhaps was rather unecessary, but a reminder that there are other battles to be won along with this one, at least for those of us with partisan feelings who want to be active in the political process.

THe MSM is not done spinning, not by a long shot, so now is not time to declare victory and go home. In todays NYTimes there are 6 letters to the editor on Rathergate. One is a 1 sentence accusation that Dan had not gone into this story open minded. The next five were centered on the following talking points, which are by no means dead:

1. If Rather deserves to lose his job for lying, doesn't this apply to Bush also (see WMD).

2. Memos are still fake but accurate. Bush shirked duty.

3. We need courageous journalist like Dan who are willing to stand up to White House.

4. Chomskian "who profited" analysis points to Lord Rove as culprit.

It especially amazed me that the Times would print that last one - shows you that the loony left is not that far away from the MSM.

AThought, fortunately, the pursuit of this story coincides with your goals.

What's this points to Rove? Rove admitted he did it. He's unf***ing-stoppable!

I think its important to note that most people have a BS detector that is always going on. But not everyone responds the same way. Some people get mad, but alot of people just stop paying attention. James Carville was on O'reilly tonight ther promo said he was "always interesting". Wrong. He's a hack and he's boring because he's a hack no one takes anything that comes out of his mouth seriously. I just muted my TV, put on some music, and read blogs for 10 minutes.

This has been quietly going on for sometime. Not that many "average" people put much stock in news outlets anymore.

I'm going to skip a few steps here and leave you with this thought. Don't underestimate the power of ridicule. Alot of people don't take these guys very seriously anymore. Not just CBS but hacks like the NYT and the Boston Globe. They are worse than not credible they are laughable.

I think Dan Rather's interview with Burkett is partially forged. I notice that when Rather says "you lied", it is clearly chop-edited in there. It is as if he forgot to directly ask "did you lie?" during the interview, but through clever editing he was at least able to get in his comment to himself saying "you lied". Something is fishy there.

I'd like to see the entire unedited interview.

Actually, the luckiest person in this is John Kerry, because I don't think ANYONE noticed the Navy found and authenticated a document proving he lied to get his Silver Star.

http://web5.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/28617.htm

September 15, 2004 -- A newly surfaced document from John Kerry's Navy record says he shot a lone, wounded enemy who was running away in the incident that led to his Silver Star, his highest military decoration.
Members of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say the report vindicates their claim that Kerry didn't show the kind of valor that merits a Silver Star. The after-action report was obtained from the Navy archives by syndicated TV commentator Mark Hyman of "The Point." A Navy official confirmed its authenticity.

John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Vets running anti-Kerry TV ads, said the document shows Kerry "was pursuing a wounded man and not charging alone into superior numbers and intense fire," as his Silver Star citation claims. Deborah Orin

I honestly don't have much confidence that we will ever see the whole of this story.

I am extremely bothered by the fact that forged documents were used to influence an election, and the producer of the show using those documents contacted the democrats in the Kerry campaign. I just don't know that the MSM is going to continue to push this story, and I do think the real answers won't be found, unless somebody files either a criminal or civil suit and starts doing depositions and asking for discovery.

I don't think the discovery of that document matters, as the details of Kerry's citations is not accurately covered by the MSM nor does it resonate with the general public.

Interesting legal discussion on Scarborough. The lawyer tacopini thinks the Texas statute is cut and dry for charging people and possibly Mapes as co-conspiritor. Said if you can show a reasonable person should have known they were forgeries and passed them on, then you could indict them. Also said other states could persue legal action. Scarborough said he fully expects an investigation in the next week.

Personally I'm more skeptical.

Comment deleted because it was wildly off-topic.

Well, when it comes to the affiliates, I might as well spend all day trying to drain Lake Superior with a thimble as spend time writing our local CBS station.

I'd get further with the thimble. I wrote anyway.

Our affiliate? I'm in Houston, so it's KHOU-TV. Rather's old station.

I promise that you will end up offering me expensive gifts for pointing you to this blog:

http://www.scyllacharybdis.blogspot.com/

This will not be easy. It hasn't been easy thus far, and the swine will only become more unhinged and virulent as we are more successful. I say we follow the advice Denzel gave Ethan Hawke once:
"Man up dawg!"

I agree, there needs to be:

* a full, honest retraction that doesn't use the weasel words "disputed" or "unauthenticated" to refer to the clearly FORGED documents.

* a full apology to the Killian family

* fire the Rather/Mapes/Heyward trifecta, the latter especially for enabling the last couple of weeks of dissemblance.

* a criminal complaint by CBS