The Mary Mapes School of Journalism

Regarding the now infamous story on CBS' 60 Minutes II that led to Dan Rather's "retirement," the segment's producer, Mary Mapes recently said on Larry King's show (view video at The Political Teen)...

"I think there were good lessons in this story for journalists and for Americans."

Hmmmm. Good lessons for journalists. What is it, exactly, that journalists do? Oh, yes -- they research a story, check their sources, and convey the information they find to the public.

Yet, when Larry King asked Mapes about the documents that were supposed to support the story about President Bush's military service, she replied...

"I believe no one has proved to me that they were false."

King asked again about the documents, and Mapes replied...

"I'm perfectly willing to believe they're false if somebody will just prove it."

You see, here's my problem with The Mary Mapes School of Journalism: SHE was supposed to prove that the documents were valid. BEFORE airing the story. That's what journalists (at least ones who know their ass from a hole in the ground) do.

CBS got it right (after the fact) in this statement:

"The idea that a news organization would not need to authenticate such important source material is only one of the troubling and erroneous statements in her account."

What did Mapes have to say about the statement?

"I think it's a very carefully worded public relations statement."

Geez. You'd think "carefully worded" would be a plus in journalism.

Then King asked her she would do anything differently regarding the story.

"I would have worded some things differently. I would have put in some of the proof, some of the corroboration I felt we had..."

So where is this alleged corroboration? It's been a year, and I've seen squat in the way of proof and corroboration. Besides, didn't she just say that it's for some nebulous "somebody" to prove to HER that the documentation upon which she rested her journalistic integrity was false?

This chick is delusional. It's clear to anyone with a brain that the story was already in the tank before she started her "research." Bush's guilt was already a foregone conclusion. But don't take my word for it...how about hers, also from that Larry King interview...

"The story we did was something akin to reporting that cigarettes cause cancer..."

My suggestion for Mapes is that she abandon the whole School of Journalism thing and found a religious movement instead. She clearly believes in her cause. She says it herself.

As a matter of fact, on a subsequent O'Reilly interview (view video at The Political Teen), she talks about believing thirteen times...

"I believed in these documents beyond a reasonable doubt. I did."

"I had plenty of reason to believe these documents were real because I didn't just count on document analysts at all because I felt that their evidence was probably the least important or the least believable to me."

Mary, Mary, Mary. What you believe is of no importance if what we're after is journalism. I, and the rest of America, turned on our TV sets to get the cold, hard facts. The news. If it's belief I'm looking for, I'll go to church.

As seen @ The Political Teen

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