ABC Features Denigration of Bush Service Record, Corrects Bush --9/22/2004-- Media Research Center

1. ABC Features Denigration of Bush Service Record, Corrects Bush
Correcting George W. Bush but not John Kerry. ABC's World News Tonight on Tuesday evening showcased a clip of a man at a Kerry rally, denigrating President Bush, by pointing his finger as he shouted: "Take off the gloves, Senator. You showed up for duty! The Commander-in-Chief didn't! You showed for duty, the Commander-in-Chief didn't!" Moments later, anchor Peter Jennings took another shot at Bush as he observed that "we were struck today by a very pointed attack by President Bush on John Kerry." Viewers then saw a clip of Bush charging that Kerry "said that the world was better off with Saddam in power. I strongly disagree." To which, Jennings countered by setting up a clip of Kerry which supposedly undercut Bush's claim: "And this is what Mr. Kerry actually said." FNC's Carl Cameron, however, showed that ABC missed an opportunity to take on the consistency and accuracy of John Kerry who contended, in the soundbite played by ABC, that "we have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."

2. CBS Admits Mapes' Kerry Contact, Denies "Any Political Agenda"
Dan Rather on Tuesday night again failed to concede that the documents were forgeries, provide any apology to critics he impugned or retract the discredited story. A CBS Evening News story acknowledged how CBS producer Mary Mapes asked Joe Lockhart of the Kerry campaign to call Bill Burkett, a man who wanted to offer campaign strategy advice in exchange for giving CBS the forged documents meant to hurt the Bush campaign -- though CBS didn't describe the arrangement in those terms. Bill Plante let her off the hook with a simple "Mapes declined today to discuss the matter," before he passed along a much violated CBS News policy pronouncement: "It is obviously against CBS News standards to be associated with any political agenda." Following denials by Lockhart of any wrongdoing, Plante concluded: "Innocent or not, a CBS News producer's assistance in connecting a source with the Kerry campaign has at least the appearance of impropriety." A former colleague of Mapes' told the AP that he knew her as "quite liberal."

3. Rather Still Thinks Memos Real, Saw Burkett as "Truth-Teller"
Dan Rather affirmed to the Chicago Tribune on Monday night that he does NOT think the memos are forged ("Do I think they're forged? No.") and, bizarrely, that he trusted Bill Burkett, a well-known Bush-basher whose claims about eyewitnessing the destruction of Bush National Guard records other media outlets long ago debunked, because "even those people," in Burkett's town, "that didn't like him said he's a truth-teller." Tuesday's Washington Post, in contrast, described Burkett as a man with "self-described mental problems who has denounced Bush as a liar with 'demonic personality shortcomings.'" To Rather, that must be "truth-telling."

4. Brown: "Smarter" People "Know" No "Willful Deception" by CBS
CNN's Aaron Brown on Monday night belittled "partisans" who "will see willful deception on the part of CBS." Brown disdainfully countered: "Smarter and more reasoned heads know better. Sources can and do sometimes mislead" -- as if CBS News were not in sync with the source's anti-Bush agenda. Brown suggested that all news organizations are as oblivious to a source's political agenda as was CBS as he claimed that "there is not an honest" reporter or news organization that hasn't "said 'there but for the grace of God go I.'"

5. Washington Post's Tom Shales: Rather "Can't Really be Blamed" Dan Rather "can't really be blamed" for "memogate" since "he was assured by others that the memos were real," nationally syndicated Washington Post television critic Tom Shales contended on Monday's Hardball. When Chris Matthews wondered why Rather went "in with both feet" to "defend the report?", Shales rationalized that Rather is "a team player, and he wanted to support the team" and "tried to defend the group behind him. So you can hardly blame him for that."

6. Rooney and Olbermann Perceive GOP "Plan to Embarrass Rather"
Fantasizing about how it was all a conservative conspiracy to embarrass Dan Rather. "There was a feeling around for awhile that this was a Republican plan," CBS's Andy Rooney informed Don Imus on Tuesday morning. Rooney ruminated: "People have suggested that this could have been a Republican plan, you know, to embarrass Rather." The night before, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann made his number four story the "conspiracy theory that the Republicans either set CBS up or quickly took advantage of a network mistake in progress." After all, at the end of the day, "Dan Rather looks like an amateur...the Democrats look guilty by association, all of the other solid reporting on Mr. Bush's service record" is "tarnished today by what CBS did, and the White House looks wounded," so "is there any question of which side came out as the winner in this politically?"

7. Abu Ghraib Storyline in Season Premiere of NBC's Law & Order Abu Ghraib storyline in Wednesday night's season premiere of NBC's Law & Order in which "a former female Guardsman from the second Gulf War is found murdered -- and evidence points to the vengeful Iraqi sister of a an ex-inmate at infamous Abu Ghraib prison."

ABC Features Denigration of Bush Service
Record, Corrects Bush

Correcting George W. Bush but not John Kerry. ABC's World News Tonight on Tuesday evening showcased a clip of a man at a Kerry rally, denigrating President Bush, by pointing his finger as he shouted: "Take off the gloves, Senator. You showed up for duty! The Commander-in-Chief didn't! You showed for duty, the Commander-in-Chief didn't!" Moments later, anchor Peter Jennings took another shot at Bush as he observed that "we were struck today by a very pointed attack by President Bush on John Kerry." Viewers then saw a clip of Bush charging that Kerry "said that the world was better off with Saddam in power. I strongly disagree." To which, Jennings countered by setting up a clip of Kerry which supposedly undercut Bush's claim: "And this is what Mr. Kerry actually said."

FNC's Carl Cameron, however, showed that ABC missed an opportunity to take on the consistency and accuracy of John Kerry who contended, in the soundbite played by ABC, that "we have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure." Cameron noted on Special Report with Brit Hume that "Kerry now says Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time. But this is what he said before the invasion." Back then, Kerry declared: "I think it would be naive to the point of grave danger not to believe that left to his own devices, Saddam Hussein will provoke, misjudge or stumble into a future of more dangerous confrontation with the civilized world."

And in December of 2003, Kerry sounded like Bush: "Those who believe today that we are not safer with his capture don't have the judgment to be President or the credibility to be elected President of the United States."

     Summarizing Kerry's contentions, on the September 21 World News Tonight, Dean Reynolds reported, as taken down by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "How, asked Kerry, could anyone have known that the Bush war plan, as he described it, would ignore expert advice, leave Iraq's borders and ammunition dumps unguarded, or be so slow to rebuild the country?"
     John Kerry: "This has been incompetently handled, mismanaged every step of the way."
     Reynolds: "This is Kerry's first visit to Florida in two months, and it's hard to tell where the race here stands because hurricanes, not politics, have been the dominant issue. But today in a rally in Jacksonville, his audience was ready for some political red meat. Not just on the war in Iraq, but the one in Vietnam, too."
     Man in audience wearing a lime T-shirt, to Kerry in the middle of a crowd, shouting and pointing finger: "Take off the gloves, Senator. You showed up for duty! The Commander-in-Chief didn't! You showed for duty, the Commander-in-Chief didn't!"
     Reynolds concluded: "As Kerry said today, we've entered a new phase of the campaign. Dean Reynolds, ABC News, with the Kerry campaign in Jacksonville."

     ABC then jumped back to Jennings, in DC with the White House in the background: "We were struck today by a very pointed attack by President Bush on John Kerry. First of all, this is what Mr. Bush said:"
     George W. Bush, in Oval Office: "We agree that the world is better off with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison cell, and that stands in stark contrast to the statement my opponent made yesterday when he said that the world was better off with Saddam in power. I strongly disagree."
     Jennings: "And this is what Mr. Kerry actually said:"
     John Kerry, in speech on Monday: "Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in Hell, but that was not, that was not in and of itself a reason to go to war. The satisfaction, the satisfaction that we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."
     Jennings: "Trying to keep track of the Iraq debate."

     But FNC's Carl Cameron did a much better job of trying to track Kerry's statements on Iraq. On Special Report with Brit Hume, he checked in from Jacksonville, Florida: "In his first news conference in 50 days, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry blasted the President for his speech to the UN."
     John Kerry: "After lecturing them instead of leading them to understand how we are all together with a stake in the outcome of Iraq, I believe the President missed an opportunity of enormous importance for our nation and for the world. He does not have the credibility to lead the world."
     Cameron: "Every time the Democratic nominee speaks, he now attacks his GOP opponent in increasingly personal terms."
     Kerry: "The management of this war has been both arrogant, lacking in candor, and incompetent, and we need to change the course."
     Cameron: "Kerry vigorously denies the President's charge that he's flip-flopped on Iraq more than a dozen times over the last two years."
     Kerry: "I have one position on Iraq, one position."
     Cameron: "But Kerry has struggled to streamline and clarify his position for months. He denies it's been evolving."
     Kerry: "What I have always said is that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein. The question is how you do it."
     Cameron: "But that seems to contradict what Kerry said just last night on the Letterman show. Senator Kerry said he would not have overthrown Saddam even though he believed the intelligence two years ago that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction."
     David Letterman: "If you had been elected President in 2000, in November of 2000, would we be in Iraq now?"
     Kerry: "No."
     Cameron: "A simple one-word answer. And Republicans call it the mother of all flip-flops. This was Kerry the last time he spoke to the press."
     Unidentified female reporter: "Knowing what you know now, you would still have voted to go to war?"
     Kerry, at Grand Canyon, August 8, 2004: "Well, I challenge the President back, but I'm ready to any challenge, and I'll answer directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority."
     Cameron: "Kerry has long argued that he was right to vote in favor of authorizing the use of force, but that the way the President used the authority was wrong. Kerry now says Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time. But this is what he said before the invasion."
     Kerry on Senate floor, October 9, 2002: "I think it would be naive to the point of grave danger not to believe that left to his own devices, Saddam Hussein will provoke, misjudge or stumble into a future of more dangerous confrontation with the civilized world."
     Cameron: "And this was Kerry after the invasion."
     Kerry, in Democratic debate, May 3, 2003: "I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him."
     Cameron: "And this was Kerry after Saddam was captured."
     Kerry at Des Moines rally, December 16, 2003: "Those who believe today that we are not safer with his capture don't have the judgment to be President or the credibility to be elected President of the United States."
     Cameron concluded: "Also today, Kerry was asked if he agreed with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's charge that the invasion of Iraq was illegal. Senator Kerry said he didn't know. And that prompted a scathing response from the Bush campaign that said in those remarks, Kerry had, quote, 'pulled the rug out from underneath the troops that he sent into harm's way.'"

CBS Admits Mapes' Kerry Contact, Denies
"Any Political Agenda"

Dan Rather on Tuesday night again failed to concede that the documents were forgeries, provide any apology to critics he impugned or retract the discredited story. A CBS Evening News story acknowledged how CBS producer Mary Mapes asked Joe Lockhart of the Kerry campaign to call Bill Burkett, a man who wanted to offer campaign strategy advice in exchange for giving CBS the forged documents meant to hurt the Bush campaign -- though CBS didn't describe the arrangement in those terms. Bill Plante let her off the hook with a simple "Mapes declined today to discuss the matter," before he passed along a much violated CBS News policy pronouncement: "It is obviously against CBS News standards to be associated with any political agenda." Following denials by Lockhart of any wrongdoing, Plante concluded: "Innocent or not, a CBS News producer's assistance in connecting a source with the Kerry campaign has at least the appearance of impropriety."

A former colleague of Mapes' told the AP he knew her as "quite liberal."

Dan Rather set up the September 21 CBS Evening News story: "White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett accused CBS News and a high-level advisor to the Kerry campaign today of coordinating a personal attack on President Bush over his National Guard record. CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante has the latest on CBS News and the document investigation."

     Plante began: "The controversy over CBS News' handling of the disputed documents about the President's National Guard service escalated further today. A top Kerry campaign official now says Mary Mapes, the producer of the 60 Minutes story, put him in touch with Bill Burkett, the former Texas Air National Guard officer who provided the documents to CBS News."
     Joe Lockhart, Kerry campaign aide: "She said that he was interested in talking to me, and she gave me his number. I called them. He gave me some advice on how to respond to the Swift Boat smears against John Kerry. We talked three to four minutes. The Guard issues or documents never came up. And that was the end of it."
     Plante: "Mapes declined today to discuss the matter, which will be investigated by an outside review panel. CBS News said in a statement [text on screen], 'It is obviously against CBS News standards to be associated with any political agenda. As to what actually happened here, it is one of many issues the independent review will be examining.' Republicans saw the story as evidence that CBS News was coordinating with the Kerry campaign to attack the President. The chair of the Republican National Committee demanded answers."
     Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee Chairman: "What was the nature of the conversation between various senior campaign advisors for Senator Kerry and the person who apparently provided the documents? What was the agreements that they had with one another, you know, CBS, Kerry campaign, and whoever provided the documents?"
     Plante: "Democrats insist it wasn't them, and fired back."
     Lockhart: "And the Kerry campaign had nothing to do with these documents. [edit jump] There is nothing to this story, and if there was something to this story, they wouldn't be afraid to debate me on that. What this is is a gutless political attack."
     Plante: "Innocent or not, a CBS News producer's assistance in connecting a source with the Kerry campaign has at least the appearance of impropriety and becomes a political issue in a bitter campaign."

CBSNews.com does not seem to have posted the statement Plante quoted, but this CBSNews.com page includes previous statements and recites the latest developments on the controversy: www.cbsnews.com

Conservative radio talk show host John Carlson of Seattle, who used to work with Mapes at KIRO-TV, told the AP she was "quite liberal." An excerpt from a September 21 AP profile of Mapes, "CBS Producer on Thin Ice After Guard Story," by David Bauder:

....John Carlson, a former commentator at KIRO-TV who is host of a conservative radio talk show in Seattle, remembers Mapes as a talented producer with whom he often argued politics in the newsroom.

Mapes was "quite liberal" and disliked the current President Bush's father, he said.

"She definitely was someone who was motivated by what she cared about and definitely went into journalism to make a difference," Carlson said. "She's not the sort of person who went into journalism to report the news and offer an array of commentary."

Carlson spoke with Mapes about the National Guard story a week ago, and said that he believes she "put so much time into it that she wanted something to come of it."

"This was a woman with a good reputation," he said. "The mistakes she made were so obvious. This was a story that was rushed because they clearly believed it was true. They wanted it to be true."...

END of Excerpt

For the AP dispatch in full, with a photo of Mapes, as posted by Yahoo: story.news.yahoo.com

For how Rather backtracked Monday night from CBS's story, but fell well short or retracting it or of labeling the memos as forgeries, as well as for an excerpt of USA Today's revelation about how CBS News producer Mary Mapes helped Burkett get his ideas heard by the Kerry campaign, see the September 21 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org ####

Rather Still Thinks Memos Real, Saw Burkett
as "Truth-Teller"

Dan Rather affirmed to the Chicago Tribune on Monday night that he does NOT think the memos are forged ("Do I think they're forged? No.") and, bizarrely, that he trusted Bill Burkett, a well-known Bush-basher whose claims about eyewitnessing the destruction of Bush National Guard records other media outlets long ago debunked, because "even those people," in Burkett's town, "that didn't like him said he's a truth-teller."

Tuesday's Washington Post, in contrast, described Burkett as a man with "self-described mental problems who has denounced Bush as a liar with 'demonic personality shortcomings.'"

To Rather, that must be "truth-telling."

On Monday's Hardball, MSNBC's Chris Matthews was befuddled by why anyone would believe Burkett: "You know, a week ago, or last week, we replayed an interview I had with this guy, Bill Burkett, who was the source of these documents, the forged documents, apparently, early in the year. And clearly, this guy had a lot of claims to make. I mean, he claims he happened to be sitting somewhere, there's a big trash can with a whole pile of stuff that was being burned, that had to do with George Bush's service in the National Guard that was being covered up. He just happened to be sitting there. He just happened to be sitting there when Karen Hughes and Joseph Allbaugh were on the phone, all part of a cover-up plan. He just happened to be there when a General walked past a lower ranking officer and gave them the word about how to cover up this guy's record. This is a guy, Bill Burkett, who was the main and only source for CBS's statement that this was an accurate document. I don't get why they would believe in a guy who had so many claims to make before."

MSNBC.com has posted a transcript of Burkett's February 12 session with Matthews: www.msnbc.msn.com

See the September 21 CyberAlert for an excerpt from the Washington Post story quoted above, highlights of some of Burkett's vicious attacks on Bush, including comparing him to Hitler, and a link to how the networks, including CBS, in February eagerly passed along his charges even though the Boston Globe discovered that Burkett's corroborating witness, for how Bush records were destroyed, denied seeing any such thing. Check the "Burkett's agenda and wrath" section: www.mediaresearch.org

An excerpt from a September 21 Chicago Tribune story by Jeff Zeleny and John Cook:

....In an interview Monday evening, a repentant Rather conceded it had been a mistake to broadcast the documents. But even though he could not vouch for their authenticity, he said he still did not believe that they were fakes.

"Do I think they're forged? No," Rather said. "But it's not good enough to use the documents on the air if we can't vouch for them, and we can't vouch for them."

Rather said he had no regrets for his defense of the story.

"I believed in it," he said. "I wouldn't have put it on the air if I hadn't of believed in it. And what kind of reporter would I be if I put something on the air in which I believed, and as soon as it's attacked and under pressure, you run, you fold, you fade, you side-wind? That's not the kind of person I am, and it's not the kind of reporter I am."

The situation changed last Thursday, Rather said, when Burkett acknowledged during a conference call with Rather and CBS executives that he had lied about how he came to possess the documents.

Before the story aired, Rather said he had interviewed Burkett about the documents and how he obtained them. Rather said his reporting on Burkett's background was one of the reasons for confidence in the story.

"When we talked to people in his home community in Texas," Rather said, "even those people that didn't like him said he's a truth-teller."...

END of Excerpt

For the September 21 Chicago Tribune article in full: www.chicagotribune.com

Brown: "Smarter" People "Know" No "Willful
Deception" by CBS

CNN's Aaron Brown on Monday night belittled "partisans" who "will see willful deception on the part of CBS." Brown disdainfully countered: "Smarter and more reasoned heads know better. Sources can and do sometimes mislead" -- as if CBS News were not in sync with the source's anti-Bush agenda. Brown suggested that all news organizations are as oblivious to a source's political agenda as was CBS as he claimed that "there is not an honest" reporter or news organization that hasn't "said 'there but for the grace of God go I.'"

Brown opened Monday's NewsNight on CNN, as noticed by the MRC's Ken Shepherd: "Good evening again everyone. There is not an honest reporter in the country today, not an honest news organization that hasn't in the last few days, when looking at the story of how the now CBS discredited documents on the President's National Guard service, said 'there but for the grace of God go I,' excepting that some partisans will see it otherwise, will see willful deception on the part of CBS. Smarter and more reasoned heads know better. Sources can and do sometimes mislead. Sometimes they do it deliberately, sometimes inadvertently but it does happen and it happened to CBS big time.
"It happened on a story involving the President which raises the stakes. It happened to the most controversial of the big three anchors. It happened in the heat of a presidential campaign. It happened. It happened, I suspect, in part because reporters want very much a good story to be true and sometimes see more clearly the things that make it true and ignore the things that don't. It happens in the best news organizations and the worst. The good ones admit it, apologize, figure out how it happened and get back to work. The worst pretend it didn't happen at all. That is one way to distinguish the difference."

It looks like Brown would have to put Rather and CBS News into the "worst" category since Rather, as detailed in item #3 above, still believes the memos are real, both he and CBS spent ten days impugning the motivations of those who questioned CBS's claims and CBS has yet to retract the now discredited story.

Washington Post's Tom Shales: Rather
"Can't Really be Blamed"

Dan Rather "can't really be blamed" for "memogate" since "he was assured by others that the memos were real," nationally syndicated Washington Post television critic Tom Shales contended on Monday's Hardball. When Chris Matthews wondered why Rather went "in with both feet" to "defend the report?", Shales rationalized that Rather is "a team player, and he wanted to support the team" and "tried to defend the group behind him. So you can hardly blame him for that."

The exchange on the September 20 Hardball on MSNBC, with Shales with Matthews in MSNBC's Washington, DC studio:

     Shales: "Well, the system screwed up again. And we've seen it happen before. Every news organization seems to get its turn at it. And it couldn't have happened at a worse time, in a way, and the fact that it was CBS, which the conservatives perceive as being, you know, this recklessly liberal place, the fact that it was CBS makes it all the worse. And then Dan Rather, who they love to beat on Dan Rather. They have their little, you know, bumper stickers, 'Rather Biased,' and they have Web sites and all this stuff. So Dan -- the fact that Dan is associated with it -- even though he can't really be blamed for it, it just-"
     A surprised Matthews wondered: "He can't be blamed for it? Why not?"
     Shales: "I don't think so. I mean, the title Managing Editor is sort of honorary, isn't it? I mean, and he was assured by others that the memos were real. He didn't go snooping around down in wherever the hell they came from."
     Matthews: "But why did he go in with both feet and defend the report?"
     Shales: "Because he's a team player, and he wanted to support the team. You know, it would have been more honorable for him to say, well, I don't know, we got some pretty weird people working here, maybe they're wrong. You know, he stuck to the guns, and tried to defend the group behind him. So you can hardly blame him for that. It's just that he walked, he waded right into the quicksand."

Rooney and Olbermann Perceive GOP "Plan
to Embarrass Rather"

Fantasizing about how it was all a conservative conspiracy to embarrass Dan Rather. "There was a feeling around for awhile that this was a Republican plan," CBS's Andy Rooney informed Don Imus on Tuesday morning. Rooney ruminated: "People have suggested that this could have been a Republican plan, you know, to embarrass Rather." The night before, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann made his number four story the "conspiracy theory that the Republicans either set CBS up or quickly took advantage of a network mistake in progress." After all, at the end of the day, "Dan Rather looks like an amateur...the Democrats look guilty by association, all of the other solid reporting on Mr. Bush's service record" is "tarnished today by what CBS did, and the White House looks wounded," so "is there any question of which side came out as the winner in this politically?"

Rooney also propounded the "fake but accurate" argument: "The evidence that there's nothing true about what's in them, is -- it doesn't exist. It could be true, everything in them....I think there's some evidence that there must have been documents that proximated those."

A portion of the Imus discussion by phone with Rooney on the September 21 Imus in the Morning on MSNBC:

     Imus: "It appears that Mr. Rather is not saying that the documents are forgeries, simply that they can't authenticate them, which seems to me to be a completely different issue."
     Rooney: "I thought you put your finger on a good point. It's hedging a little to say, the suggestion is that they are authentic, but we can't determine that for certain."
     Imus: "For a couple of weeks there, he may have had a point, but it sounded foolish...and it was pretty much demonstrated that these obviously were not, that these documents were fraudulent, to say that the content was represented, the sentiments of those people, because that may be true, but there wasn't any way to demonstrate that, it makes you sound like a crazy person."
     Rooney: "I thought that was a mistake, and I suspect that the contents of the document are true. I don't know why George W. Bush says, 'hey, look, yeah I got a hand from Dad, I mean who wouldn't?' I mean, everybody wanted to get into the National Guard to avoid going to Vietnam. I mean, it was, yeah I got some help from Dad, what's wrong with that?..."
     Imus: "Rather said...I'd like to get the original documents if they still exist. So, he's not walking away from this at all."
     Rooney: "Well, I think there's some evidence that there must have been documents that proximated those that we, that they did get a hold of."
     Imus: "What evidence do we have of that?"
     Rooney: "Well, somebody made these up from -- not from cold cloth. In other words, somebody had something to start with when they started adding those things, typing them, retyping them."
     Imus: "...Well, they've been these suspicions for years, that what you just said, went on. That he got, you know, not that he disobeyed an order, some of the charges in these particular documents that were made, but the first thing that we would've done, if we had been contacted by Burkett, we would have Google'd him...well if you Google the guy, you come up with what looks like somebody...who has an over the top agenda."
     Rooney: "...There was a feeling around for awhile that this was a Republican plan. I talked to a real expert...and they knew right away that these documents were, had been altered–or were fraudulent. And, I don't know why, you know, they should have gone to somebody like that. But, the evidence that there's nothing true about what's in them, is -- it doesn't exist. It could be true, everything in them."
     Imus: "No, before we say that...I would simply say, it's clear the documents are phoney and the story may or may not be true, and if we can find out whether it's true or not, I would have some evidence. They don't have any evidence that it's true. They need the original documents then."
     Rooney: "They do. I can't imagine who would sit down, I mean, these documents are long, imagine somebody sitting down to duplicate those documents on a computer, it would take days to retype them."
     Imus: "Well clearly, somebody did though."
     Rooney: "Oh, I don't know if its clear, but it looks as if it did though."
     Imus: "You're not suggesting that you think these documents are authentic, are you?"
     Rooney: "No, I'm not, what I'm suggesting is, that there are complex issues. In other words, people have suggested that this could have been a Republican plan, you know, to embarrass Rather. It could have been an evil, I mean, if it was Democrats who did this, that's evil. I think its going to be fascinating to find out who did this and for what reason."
     Imus: "Well, should CBS be investigating itself?"
     Rooney: "Well, I think–"
     Imus: "Why don't we let NBC News do it?"
     Rooney: "It will be interesting to see who they get on the panel. I don't think Bernie Goldberg will be on the panel...there are a great many, very legitimate journalists in this country who are philosophers in the business...it certainly would not be difficult to establish a really classy panel, but I don't know what they're going to find."

     On Monday's Countdown on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann opened a segment as observed by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "Our number four story on the Countdown, there was already a conspiracy theory going in the Killian CBS case: The Democrats did it. The Bartlett angle then fueled the alternative conspiracy theory that the Republicans either set CBS up or quickly took advantage of a network mistake in progress. First, Mr. Bartlett today appearing on MSNBC, as he earlier did on CNN and Fox News:"
     Dan Bartlett: "Who created them? Who offered them? Who worked with him on this? Who are the ones who developed this story? There have been conversations with members of the Kerry campaign and Democrats with the source, for example, Bill Burkett. That's come out in recent days. There's been communications between Ben Barnes, who is the Democrat who was involved in this story in the first place in saying, claiming that he got the President in the Guard when that's not the case, and his communications with the Kerry campaign. So there's a lot of different questions that are circling and swirling on this. Each day seems to bring a new revelation."
     Olbermann: "For the battle of the conspiracy theorists, I'm joined now by MSNBC political analyst and Congressional Quarterly contributor Craig Crawford."

Olbermann's questions to Crawford:

-- "Let me start with the least believed explanation of them all. Is it possible that neither theory is correct and this was just terrible journalism and not politically manipulated journalism?"

-- "All right, the two political theories here. At the White House, Mr. Bartlett points out he had only three and a half hours with these documents before he sat down for the interview with John Roberts, and he said the White House won't contest the authenticity of the documents. Is that enough time to hear the knock of political opportunity, let them blow themselves up with this? Or have I become now completely jaded by exposure to this Machiavellian world of modern presidential American politics?"

-- "Let me ask you a final question here about the winner/loser question. Dan Rather looks like an amateur, CBS looks like a journalistic street walker, the Democrats look guilty by association, all of the other solid reporting on Mr. Bush's service record by the Boston Globe, by others, tarnished today by what CBS did, and the White House looks wounded, invaded, schemed against. Is there any question of which side came out as the winner in this politically?"

Abu Ghraib Storyline in Season Premiere
of NBC's Law & Order

Abu Ghraib storyline in Wednesday night's season premiere of NBC's Law & Order.

The NBC.com summary of the plot of tonight's episode: "Dennis Farina ('Get Shorty') joins the cast as Detective Joe Fontana, a stylish veteran uneasily paired with Detective Green (Jesse L. Martin) when a former female Guardsman from the second Gulf War is found murdered -- and evidence points to the vengeful Iraqi sister of a an ex-inmate at infamous Abu Ghraib prison. However, when D.A.s McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Southerlyn (Elisabeth Rohm) begin to prosecute, they discover that the suspect's lawyer boldly plans to defend his client as an 'enemy soldier' -- subject only to the terms of the Geneva Convention. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg guest-stars as himself."

NBC's page for Law & Order: www.nbc.com

NBC will air two episodes tonight, Wednesday. The Abu Ghraib plot will be in the first one airing at 9pm EDT/PDT, 8pm CDT/MDT.

-- Brent Baker

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