CBS Evening News, Initiative Opponents Team Up For Lesson in Investigative Journalism

CBS Evening News Features Courage Campaign Derring-Do

The crack investigative ethic at CBS Evening News, the Courage Campaign, and DailyKOS combine to bust initiative workers and Crooks and Liars brings in a guest to hand out the plaudits.

It is not every day that something from a blog post ends up in the CBS Evening News, but then again using children with cancer to try and steal the White House is pretty egregious. A diarist at Daily Kos noticed that the dirty tricksters, who are advancing an initiative that would switch 20 of California’s electoral college votes to the Republicans were using children’s cancer as a bait-and-switch to get people to sign the initiative and place it on the ballot. The Courage Campaign sent a film crew led by Erik Love to go tape Arno’s signature gatherers (pdf) and we caught them red-handed.

Julia Rosen is the Political Director for the Courage Campaign. CBS Evening News' Dan Rather urged viewers with his trademark: "Courage". Rosen then congratulates soulmate CBS for its courage--well, okay, the pub CC received, anyway.

That video was featured in the weekend edition of the CBS Evening news. Watch the clip. It is a particularly good segment on the initiative. And special thanks to John for grabbing that clip for us.

Of course, Rosen is right: this is a textbook example of how journalists safeguard the Republic from the misdeeds of those who plead for initiative signers. CBS Evening News, alerted by DailyKOS, abetted by the Courage Campaign, is once again a hotbed of investigative innovation.

Hundreds of dishwashers and busboys, who barely speak English, pony up $2300 apiece to Hillary Clinton's campaign: that's not quite so interesting a story.

But CBS is to be applauded. As Rosen points out: opponents busting initiative workers doesn't happen every day.

The chicanery of Clinton campaign fund-raising is old news.

by Mondoreb
[image:buycostumes.com]
Source: Dirty Tricksters Caught on Video: CBS Evening News Edition
[theme:howsthatforbaitandswitch?]



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UPDATE: DanRatherGate Part 2

[graphic: RidesAPaleHorse]
by Mondoreb

UPDATE on the Dan Rather Threatened CBS Over Bush National Guard Documents story earlier.

"If the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story," Rather said in an interview last night. "Any time I'm wrong, I want to be right out front and say, 'Folks, this is what went wrong and how it went wrong.' "

--What Rather said in September 2004.

Despite overwhelming evidence at the time that the documents were fake, Rather steadfastly insisted that they were authentic. The only story he could have broken at the time of the quote was the story he was part of--that he was just getting around to admitting that there were problems. The only bigger story would have been if Rather had announced he was joining a 12-step program for dealing with reality.


More from Rathergate ReDeaux: Dan Rather Threatened CBS Over Bush Documents
More from The Drudge Report



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RATHERGATE REDEAUX: Dan Rather Threatened CBS News Over Bush National Guard Documents

DRUDGE REPORT EXCLUSIVE!

Rather Caught Again in Another Lie?

OH! The Hypocrisy of It All!


by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn
[photo at left: Howard Kurtz's new book "Reality Show"]

From The Drudge Report

Former CBSNEWS anchor Dan Rather pressured CBS to air the failed Bush/National Guard story in September 2004, Howard Kurtz reports in his new blockbuster book: REALITY SHOW: INSIDE THE LAST GREAT TELEVISION NEWS RACE. Rather claims in his lawsuit against CBS that he wasn't involved in the final decision to run the Memogate story.

After finishing nearly two years of research, Kurtz unleashes his book this week.

Excerpt:

The night before the story was tentatively scheduled to air, Rather was sitting at the anchor desk, with less than half an hour before the start of the Evening News. He called Josh Howard, who had recently been named as executive producer of 60 Minutes Wednesday, and asked what they were doing to promote his story.

“We’re not,” Howard said. “We haven’t gotten the lawyers to sign off. The script isn’t finished. We haven’t even talked to the White House. I’m not going to start promoting a story when we don’t know what we have.” That was not the answer Rather wanted to hear.

“Other people are chasing this story,” he said. “We’re going to lose our exclusive. We have to get our hooks into the story.”

When Howard again refused, Rather raised the stakes.

“I’m going to give one of the documents to The New York Times to run in Wednesday’s paper,” he said. “They’ll have to credit CBS News. That way we can put our stamp on it.”

“You can’t do that either,” Howard said. “We haven’t finished vetting this.” Rather grumbled and hung up. To raise the specter of giving away a scoop to a competing news outlet was practically unheard of.

Howard, who had once been an Evening News producer, had never been subjected to this kind of pressure. He did, however, have a backup plan. They were still in rerun season, so if the Guard story failed to get the green light, he had a previously aired program ready to go.

Once again, Dan Rather's arrogance has come back to haunt him--although the word 'haunt' implies that his hubis had died and come to life. Rather's arrogance is alive and well and never even took sick.

The truth is finally coming to light. Rather continues to implode.

Courage, Dan.



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First He Parts the Sea, Then He Files SuitDAN RATHER: SUPER JOURNALIST or SUPER NARCISSIST?--You be the Judge.

by Little Baby Ginn & Mondoreb

Does Dan Rather suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Or is he just insufferable? You be the judge.

Diagnostic criteria for 301.81 Narcissistic Personality Disorder


A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

(4) requires excessive admiration

(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

So, do any of these fit Dan Rather? You be the judge.

Whether on Larry King or filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit, Dan Rather wants you to feel sorry for him. He was shunned. His self-esteem was damaged by CBS News. Sounds like Dan was the guilty one here. He was guilty of believing all the swill he dished up, newscast by newscast, throughout his years at CBS.

Download a copy of the original court complaint.
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Dan Rather's Reality Recedes. THE WRATH OF SOUR GRAPES'Victim of the Rightwing'

by Little Baby Ginn & Mondoreb

From MSNBC:
Sept. 21, 2007 - In parts, it reads like a political thriller, with a cast of “right-wing” hit men out to force a powerful journalist to heel. Or a tale of corporate deceit, in which Machiavellian suits sacrifice their own to cozy up to the president of the United States. Or a behind-the-scenes saga of a network news division assembling a story that could help unseat an incumbent president at the polls.

Yawn. Dan's a victim, as usual. Ho-hum.

One of the saddest things, Dan seems to feel, is that CBS fired him the day after Bush's re-election. Those bastards!

The complaint details horrors no sane meglomaniacal anchorman should have to endure. CBS gave him few assignments! Little staff! Very little air time!

So now CBS must prove that the documents that Dan Rather waved in front of the nation barely a month before the 2004 election were false. And Dan Rather will have to prove that he's not a whiny foot-stomper. This whole affair is unseemly. It's as if the cowardly Lion sued the Wizard of Oz.

Courage, Dan, courage.

Original Rather court complaint, available for download

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TRUE CONFESSIONS:MAPES & RATHER--We Were Just Two Young KidsBurned By The Rightwing Blogs'The New and Bruising Power'

by Mondoreb
[graphics: RidesAPaleHorse]

Take two crazy kids: one a CBS News producer; the other, a cock-eyed optimist, gamely taking on the world every evening--each living for the other. Then disaster strikes, their whole wacky world comes crashing down and, well--things are just never the same.

Mary Mapes has a strange tale to tell at Huffington Post. She doesn't yet quite understand those strange and awful forces that conspired against her and Gunga Dan.

It has been three years since we aired our much-maligned story on President Bush's National Guard service and reaped a whirlwind of right-wing outrage and talk radio retaliation. That part of the assault on our story was not unexpected. In September 2004, anyone who had the audacity to even ask impertinent questions about the president was certain to be figuratively kicked in the head by the usual suspects.

As per the usual Leftard cant, any MSM minions caught with their fingers in the cookie jar are the victims. Try to swing an election at the last minute with doctored documents?
We didn't mean any harm!
People protest when you smear them on what passes for a national newscast?
We were just foolin'!
Don't have any proof for the junk you're pushing?
We believe in the story!

What was different in our case was the brand new and bruising power of the conservative blogosphere, particularly the extremists among them. They formed a tightly knit community of keyboard assault artists who saw themselves as avenging angels of the right, determined to root out and decimate anything they believed to be disruptive to their worldview.

Anyway, you get the idea. The rest of her article does what burned Leftists do when confronted with tough arguments: call those who disagree names, dance the smear tango, sling scorn. Weep, repeat and rinse. It's enough to discourage even the most avenging of angels.

How can it be that one week the stories are all about "Where, Oh Where is the Right-Wing Answer to KOS?" And the VERY NEXT week, this story alerts the world to "The brand new and bruising power" of the well-oiled, Zionist-financed, Rightwing Lunatic, SuperDuper-Meglo-Blogosphere? It's like Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz: We had the power in our assault keyboards all the time, we just didn't know it.

Mary Mapes wasn't ripped by some sinister force: she was called out on her attempts to force lies down the throats of people who could challenge her. Her and Rather were no longer gatekeepers. Lies no longer took days, weeks, months to refute; in only minutes and hours the public could be alerted to slanders and falsehoods.

It's been three years and Mary Mapes is no closer to admiting that she had a problem. Neither is Dan Rather. In their eyes, they were just two crazy kids with a news program, a twinkle in their eyes and wild dream of swinging an election in their hearts. Everytime a $70 million lawsuit is filed, everytimes a Mapespiece is written, you have to smile.

You keep settin' 'em up. We'll keep knockin' 'em down.
[Rightwing bloggers take heart! THE NEW AND BRUISING POWER: Michelle Malkin(26), Drudge Reports(31), Hot Air(43), PowerLine(61), Instapundit(62), Townhall.com(72), Little Green Footballs(74), Newbusters(77), and The Corner on NRO(89) {Hope no one was missed on the Technorati Top 100 Linked-to Blogs}]
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SUE CBS: DAN WOULD RATHER-One of His Better Decisions

by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

"This race between Dick Swett and Bob Smith is hot and tight as a too-small bathing suit on a too-long car ride back from the beach."
--Dan Rather, Election Night 1996

Dan Rather was CBS Evening News anchor for a long time. So long, in fact, that he accumulated a lot of baggage: a lot of bizarre quotes, actions, sayings, and finally, a story which was patently false. It was this last item which finally got him fired from CBS.

Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit Wednesday against CBS, alleging the network made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service.
CNN story.

Rather insists he is the "scapegoat" even though he publicly apologized for the story, which presented documents right before the 2004 election, which later proved to be false. "Scapegoat Dan" was a victim, even though others expressed doubts about the documents' authenticity.

Rather is a victim--even though he insisted, long after the documents proved to be false, "that he believes this story to be true". Rather is a victim, even though he has no evidence to support his beliefs. Rather is a victim--even though he continued to stonewall, long after the documents were proven to be flimsy forgeries.

Dan Rather is a victim. He's a victim of his arrogance, hubris, and condescending attitude towards those with whom he disagreed. He's a victim of a world which shifted underneath his feet while he remained unaware. He's a victim of exploding information, of which he is no longer a gatekeeper.

"Folks, let me point out something to you, because for a lot of people in Washington, they could not be more surprised if Fidel Castro came loping through on the back of a hippopotamus."
--Dan Rather on Election Night, 1998.

Read the rest of story
PLUS! Dan Rather's Strange Quotes!
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Daily Cox and Forkum

Cox & Forkum

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DAN RATHER SUES CBS NEWS: $70m Will Help Ease The Pain"I Coulda Been a Contender"

by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

Former CBS Evening News anchor, Dan Rather, is suing CBS over what he terms their 'intentional mishandling' of the effects of the G.W. Texas Air National Guard story. This seems a strange move, given Rather's earlier statements about CBS.

CBS news is in my rearview mirror now. I have a special place for the people, present and past at CBS news, I worked with. It's filled with really caring, dedicated, working people.[Taken from transcript on Larry King Live.]

Rather than went on to say he was sorry he goofed.

The failure of CBS News to do just that, to properly fully scrutinize the documents and their source, led to our airing the documents when we should not have done so. It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. Also I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry.

Death by 1000 Papercuts will have a complete report on this story, the suit and the events leading up to Rather's seemingly self-destructive acts.
Larry King Live transcript
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