Mary Mapes got caught doing shoddy journalism. Now she claims to be the victim of a “vast right wing conspiracy”.

She is convinced she was the victim of a group of loosely associated Internet bloggers "with a harsh political bent" who pounced on CBS News minutes after the airing of the now-infamous Texas Air National Guard story on "60 Minutes 2" in September 2004.

The story purported to have proof that George W. Bush received preferential treatment while serving with the Guard during the Vietnam era. The story was based in part on alleged "newly discovered" memos about his attendance record that were later discredited.

"Within a few minutes, I was online visiting Websites I had never heard of before: Free Republic, Little Green Footballs, Power Line," writes Mapes in the first chapter of her new book about the reaction to the story.

"They were hard-core, politically angry, hyperconservative sites loaded with vitriol about Dan Rather and CBS."

Uh, they were loaded with vitriol about the airing of disproven claims using documents of questionable provenance. They were upset that such accusations were broadcast so close to election day. That does not make it a conspiracy – and the fact that the CBS story fell apart within hours is proof enough that this was not a conspiracy. Instead, what you saw was a confluence of expertise and knowledge used to debunk false claims made by a discredited media sources and unethical journalists with an ideological agenda.

Or do you have some actual evidence – not obtained from a secret source and photocopied o prevent examination – that demonstrates you were set up?

Posted by: Greg at 01:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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