11/11/2005

12 Responses to “Document Examiner Emily Will on Mary Mapes’s “Facts””

1. [Comment deleted. First, it has nothing to do with the post. Second, it completely copies an article. A link would have been sufficient.]

   Joe (350eea) — 11/11/2005 @ 9:55 pm

   
   

2. I read Will’s points, and although she points to some issues she has with the book, they struck me as mostly of the ‘she says Saturday, it was really Sunday’ type. In her e-mail to Powerline she says there are “There are MANY untruths”, but her post only makes 6 points, of which only 3 are described in ‘that is false’ type terms.

   I don’t doubt that Mapes is lying, or exaggerating, or misleading about what happened with Will. I’m just saying she doesn’t make a very powerful argument about it IMO.

   I’m sure any innacuracy is very important to Will though, if I was a document examiner I’d want to be as far away from that fiasco as possible and any mention of my name by Mapes when defending her positions would turn my little engine up to full throttle.

   Dwilkers (a1687a) — 11/12/2005 @ 5:28 am

   
   

3. Several days ago, when Mary Mapes first started making the rounds on TV, ostensibly to push her book, but really to rehabilitate herself and The Dan, she made herself absurd every time she claimed it wasn’t her job to ensure the documents were authentic. Dan’s hung his hat on the same peg, of course it’s laughable, but that’s all he’s got.

   But, Mapes has been in TV long enough to be a quick study. She knows she hasn’t been able to sell the nostrum critics of the documents must prove (to her satisfaction) the documents false. So, now she’s backing and filling. Talking about garbage cans and how convenient documents might find their way to the top. Or, even that some unseen hand may be directing things.

   Anyway, Mapes is presenting much better when not pushed to explain why she went forward with questionable documents. That’s why Emily Will is so important. She had reservations and made them known in time to prevent the fiasco. Will’s reservations should have been a red flag, but Mapes ignored them, manipulated the inquiry, minimized the questions, and rushed the story ahead of the elections.

   Mapes wanted the story so much she violated the most fundamental rules of her profession, and now can’t find the courage to face up to her part in the fall of The Dan. All this sad and bitter woman has left is double talk and denial.

   Black Jack (ee9fe2) — 11/12/2005 @ 9:45 am

   
   

4. Black Jack said that Mrs. Mapes was doing this “to rehabilitate herself and The Dan.” Well, maybe that is her intention, but it ain’t gonna work: Dan Rather is semi-retired (meaning: no longer the all-powerful anchorman), and will stay semi-retired, because he was losing ratings. Mrs. Mapes herself will stay unrehabilitated, because there is so much competition out here for so few jobs in her field that no one would hire her; it’s just not worth it.

   I’d say that her book has actually hurt her more than helped. When you already have a reputation as not being honest, putting down anything on paper that isn’t completely accurate is going to be seen as an outright lie. And you’d think that, by now, she’d have learned that there are a lot of people out there who scrutinize this kind of stuff, looking for those . . . inaccuracies.

   Is she actually making any money on this book?

   Dana R. Pico (8d0335) — 11/12/2005 @ 10:18 am

   
   

5. Pico,

   Word is she got a 6 figure advance, some say on the high side of 6.

   Reviews at Amazon are hot and cold. Lefty opinion is that Mapes is a crusading journalist wrongly cast out of the profession by mean corporate fat cats who haven’t got the courage of The Dan, and won’t stand up to GWB’s storm troopers.

   The other side of the coin sees Mapes as so consumed by hate and envy that she willingly used fake documents to push a story she desperately wanted to be true. Had she been able to land a heavy blow on GWB and prevent his reelection, Mapes would have ascended to her rightful place as Queen of CBS News, and become the unquestioned hand of The Dan.

   My take on the money question: She’s already made a nice piece of change from the book, is quite likely to make a good bit more, and she’s a big winner on the college lecture circuit for the next 10 years or so. Big financial win for Mary Mapes.

   Black Jack (ee9fe2) — 11/12/2005 @ 10:56 am

   
   

6. Jack:

   Several years ago, when I was running a concrete plant in Virginia, the Powers That Be decided that we couldn’t get a new front-end loader, but would have to get the old one rebuilt. So, away it went, and we had a rental loader for about a month. The old Kawasaki came back, nice and prettily painted, and with a new air conditioning unit on top of the cab. Ricky, the regular loader operator, went and got the rental loader, I pulled the reconditioned one off the low-boy, and went to fill the aggregate bins. After I got done with that, I brought the reconditioned Kawasaki back up front, and said to my boss, “Well, I guess this proves it.”

   “Proves what?” he asked.

   “With enough money, you really can paint a turd.”

   And that explains Mrs. Mapes six-figure advance.

   Dana R. Pico (8d0335) — 11/12/2005 @ 12:52 pm

   
   

7. “Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?”
   — RFK quoting George Bernard Shaw

   Some look at things that are, and ask why. Mary Mapes dreams of things that never were and asks why not have Bill Burkett create them.

   Shredstar (532850) — 11/12/2005 @ 2:06 pm

   
   

8. Well its obvious that like the typical liberal media sow that Mapes is, she is so disconnected with reality she assumes people will believe what she puts into her book without fact checking her…

   Talk about being Ted Kennedy stupid, didn’t she think one of the document examiners wouldn’t fisk some of her drivel?

   Consider reading NewsBuster’s comment: Rather’s Comforting Words for Mapes: ‘F–k ‘Em All’…

   russ (60483e) — 11/12/2005 @ 3:36 pm

   
   

9. The lovely Mrs. Mapes said:

   There was no analysis of what the documents actually said, no work done to look at the content, no comparison with the official record, no phone calls made to check the facts of the story, nothing beyond a cursory and politically motivated examination of the typeface. That was all they had to attack, but that was enough.

   This is mindboggling! If the documents were fakes, what does it matter what they said? That the meticulous Mrs. Mapes couldn’t understand that says a whole lot about the attitudes at CBS Views.

   Dana R. Pico (a071ac) — 11/13/2005 @ 12:14 pm

   
   

10. Concerning the tepid way in which Emily Will responded to Mapes’ statements, I’m a friend of Emily Will, having used her in some legal work. She is the consummate professional, and doc examiner’s, like doctors and lawyers, are usually under advice of counsel to use “doc lingo”. I told Emily recently she should have called Mapes a “g-d liar” but her profession wouldn’t let her. Nor would her style. She’s a very classy lady.
    But un-checked and un-attacked lies have become de reguier among the left these days, with the help of the media. A counter attack in kind is called for. I suggest she and her colleagues write a book…line by line…after all, it ain’t libel if it’s true.

    Vassar Bushmills (2c5d70) — 11/15/2005 @ 3:17 pm