Mary Mapes

Mary Mapes is a senior CBS News producer who "worked on the disastrous 60 Minutes II segment" regarding George W. Bush's military service and who obtained the dubious Killian documents "reportedly faxed from a Texas Kinko's." 

CBS News, owned by Sumner Redstone's Viacom multimedia conglomerate, announced January 10, 2005, that it had fired four CBS News employees, including Mapes.  -

"Truth and Duty"
Mary Mapes' "Truth and Duty. The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power" was published November 2005 by St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-35195-X.

Information about the book can be found on the Truth and Duty.com website.

From ? ? ? to Jeff Gannon to Talon News, Etc.
See Rathergate: Jeff Gannon and Talon News for the September 13, 17, and 21, 2004, articles.


 * Ratherbiased.com reported September 13, 2004, that "Talon News reports today that CBS spokesperson Kelli Edwards confirmed to it that Mary Mapes was the CBS representative who obtained the disputed documents that allegedly give details of George W. Bush's National Guard service."


 * Note: It is unclear whether all that follows was taken directly from Gannon's article(s).


 * "CBS producer Mary Mapes is a controversial figure who has made headlines in her own right.


 * "In 1999 she was threatened with jail time if she did not turn over a transcript and videotape of an interview with the murderer of James Byrd. CBS finally relented and put up an online transcript, but only after CBS News president Andrew Heyward said, 'Journalists cannot be seen as tools of law enforcement or the judicial system.'


 * "Ms. Mapes is also responsible for CBS's reporting on the Abu Ghraib pictures, a story she helped break. According to TV reporter Gail Shister, 'The scoop was the result of more than two months' legwork by 60 II producer Mary Mapes.' In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mapes described how hard she worked to find the incriminating pictures:


 * "'We ended up chasing it, chasing it halfway around the world and back again. Trying not just to chase the rumors of it, but---but to find out what the reality of it. And in the beginning, a lot of it was whispered accounts of pictures that existed somewhere, an investigation that was going somewhere against someone, and we were able luckily to narrow that down and get our hands on the pictures which really gave us our first real hard proof that this was real.'


 * "In the Memogate [i.e. Rathergate] scandal, Mapes played a key role in acquiring the statements of former Guardsmen who served with Bush."

Comments


 * A close read of the three full-length Jeff Gannon Talon News' articles preserved in SourceWatch as Rathergate: Jeff Gannon and Talon News would indicate to any reasonably educated reader that they are broad in scope, apparently well researched, as they contain quotes alleged to be from first-person interviews, well crafted, and, quite possibly, exceed gannon's "journalistic" abilities.


 * Although all three articles should be thoroughly vetted, the third article contains much accusatory and inflammatory language towards Democrats and those involved in the presidential campaign, pointing this particular article clearly towards the political propaganda camp. This also indicates that, possibly, the preceding two articles were only a "warm up" leading to the "kill" in the third.


 * Since the September 13, 2004, article was immediately disseminated via the web, various aspects, particularly that regarding Mape's Abu Ghraib "claims" have undergone much scrutiny and criticism. This begs the question: Did "Jeff Gannon" fabricate these and other "facts" as well, particularly to further discredit Mapes and Dan Rather? and, in the case of the third letter, the Democrats as well?


 * Note that Kelli Edwards, allegedly Gannon's "source", was not among those "let go" by CBS:


 * "Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Mary Murphy. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated." [

SourceWatch Resources

 * manufactured journalism
 * Rathergate: Sumner M. Redstone, George W. Bush & CBS