Friday
December 02, 2005
SGN.org
Volume 33
Issue 48
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Monday, Mar 22, 2010
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A CONVERSATION WITH MARY MAPES |
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| A CONVERSATION WITH MARY MAPES | ||
| Former 'CBS Evening News' and '60 Minutes' producer speaks out
By E. Joyce Glasgow - SGN A&E Writer Mary Mapes, former producer for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and 60 Minutes II spoke at a City Club luncheon on Friday, November 8, at the Washington Athletic Club. Steve Scher, host of Weekday on KUOW 94.9 radio, interviewed the award-winning producer. She was in town talking about her new book, The Truth and Duty: The Press, the President and the Privilege of Power. Her controversial 2004 report questioned President Bush's National Guard service. The question regarding the validity of the documents cited in the story eventually led to Dan Rather's resignation from his anchor position and her firing. She also was the first to break the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and was the first to interview Strom Thurmond's illegitimate daughter. During her interview with Scher, she said that after Bush's National Guard story was released, she was grilled by six fraud attorneys for thirty hours and received numerous emails from neo-conservatives demanding that Dan Rather be fired. She said that Bush's Texas National Guard unit was the "Champagne Unit," populated by the privileged, including the sons of H.L. Hunt, members of the Dallas Cowboys and members of the Dallas Country Club. She said that she grew up as the child of Washington State farmers and that if she were a little older and a man, she would surely have been shipped over to Vietnam, lacking the connections and privilege that Bush had. She said that George Bush fell through the cracks, just disappeared, after one million dollars in flight training. He signed a paper committing to serve in April 1972, but what happened to him between November 1972 and May 1973? Excuses were made that the 7102 (which he was trained to fly) was being phased out, but it still was being flown. There were no signs of him going to drills in Alabama and he didn't need a physical. He said that he had "other things to do." Mary Mapes said that all the excuses sounded like the kind of things her eight-year-old son would say when the brownies disappear. After her Bush report, she was target by what she called a "right-wing death ray" and that it was "terrifying." She said that there is still no proof that the documents she exposed were forgeries and that she plans on continuing her investigation. She said that Dan Rather was a "good buddy" and a "paternal figure" for producers and a "hell of a reporter" and she thinks he should continue doing stories for 60 Minutes. She said that this has turned into a time of "Google journalism," of repeaters, not reporters. It is important to get and knock on doors to get the truth instead of spin, she said. She feels that reporters should be skeptical, but not cynical and to see with their own eyes. She said that she is dying to work on another story and is not going to "sink into the sunset." I asked her what she thought about Brigadier General Janice Karpinski's comments these being the "years of the women" and that the Bush Administration is scapegoating and trying to destroy strong, opinionated women who tell the truth and set precedence. She replied that you "can't have a witch-hunt without a witch" and asked, "When isn't it the year of the women." She said that "we get all dressed up and then they throw one of us into a volcano." The talk with Mary Mapes was co-sponsored by Elliott Bay Book Co; 4Culture; Leadership Tomorrow; the Forum at the Evans School, University of Washington; Seattle Works and the Washington News Council. For future City Club events, contact them at 206-682-7395 or at their website: www.seattlecityclub.org. This event will be shown on TVW. |
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International Readers |
 
It's new!A blog created by the SGN staff so you can be heard |
"Putting on the Ritz |
The Beauty of Freedom artist's reception |
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