FACT: Bush was AWOL, regardless of "memo-gate"...

[RBHam]

by kos
Wed Jan 12th, 2005 at 10:22:14 PST

With all the wingnut crowing about CBS and 60 Minutes, you'd think they blew the story that Bush had been AWOL. Fact is, CBS got one piece of evidence wrong, from a whole truckload of evidence.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/12/132214/106

[JohnnyRingo]

1. Yep...I expect to hear it if his service record ever comes up again

They'll say: "Those documents were discredited as forgeries!"

As if that means he did a six year gig.
Bullshit.

[Racenut20]

2. The "real" truth, as my protest sign reads

30 + = DESERTION !!!!

[bowens43]

3. It has not been proved that the memos were not authentic.

It's not a 'fact' that CBS got a piece of the evidence wrong. The independent investigation did not find that the memos were not authentic.

[cornermouse]

4. But most people aren't going to believe you.

All they heard was the words "memo" and "fraud". Rove was highly successful in burying Bush's AWOL status.

[RBHam]

5. The "Big Lie" theory...

Repeat it loudly enough and often enough...

Exactly.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

6. Even CBS doesn't believe their own memos now

That doesn't invalidate the story, but it did so to most Americans.

[flobee1kenobi]

7. I had to "correct" a repug yesterday

when he started spouting the forgery claim. The first question was:
-Did you actually wath the program that started this whole fiasco?
--Uh.......no, I heard about it on the radio

All they get are soundbites and they call it news

[Bridget Burke]

8. But you're ready to supply the facts, aren't you?

The FACT that Bush Sr used his political position to get his little boy a safe place to avoid Vietnam. And the FACT that little Bushie couldn't even hack the Battle of Ellington.

Both these facts have been known a long time.

[flobee1kenobi]

9. factual eqivalent of a kill shot

The secretary that wrote the original memo stated that all the information in Dan's memo was correct.....

That one ended the debate

[AliciaKeyedUp]

10. Yes, I am

I don't doubt the story, but CBS screwed it up royally.

And now, thanks to their poor journalism, most of America not only doubts that story, but anything else CBS or other media report.

[leesa]

12. CBS was set up by Rove. It was very clever and very effective.

[yardwork]

13. I disagree that CBS screwed up

I watched the original show and followed the whole thing very closely. Within minutes of the telecast, rightwing attorneys in Atlanta pretending to be good old boys had posted detailed technical exposes on Free Republic, which, unaccountably, got picked up by the MSM within hours.

Trouble is, the technical "facts" were wrong. The memos may be fakes but if they are it's not for the reasons that "Buckhead" gave on FR, "reasons" that had obviously been supplied to him before-hand by Rove. CBS shared the memos with the WH and asked them to respond 24 hours before the telecast. Rove set Rather up by refusing to question the veracity of the memos before the telecast, then ambushing Rather immeditely afterwards.

There is reason to believe that the memos were originally forged by Rove operatives, years ago, and dangled like bait in front of first Gore and then Kerry. Rather finally took the bait.

Lost in all the intrigue is the fact that not one detail of the memos is considered untrue!

[leesa]

11. Yes. This was a real creative way to get rid of that whole segment

of Bush's worthless life. And our media, once again, allowed it.

[Octafish]

14. Corporate McPravda is OWNED by the Bush Gang

The Bush Rule of Journalism

By Robert Parry
January 17, 2005

“Don’t take on the Bushes” is becoming an unwritten rule in American journalism. Reporters can make mistakes in covering other politicians and suffer little or no consequence, but a false step when doing a critical piece on the Bushes is a career killer.

The latest to learn this hard lesson are four producers at CBS, who demonstrated inadequate care in checking out memos purportedly written by George W. Bush’s commanding officer in the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s. For this sloppiness, CBS fired the four, including Mary Mapes who helped break last year’s Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

A painful irony for the CBS producers was that the central points of the memos – that Bush had blown off a required flight physical and was getting favored treatment in the National Guard – were already known, and indeed, were confirmed by the commander’s secretary in a follow-up interview with CBS. But even honest mistakes are firing offenses when the Bushes are involved.

By contrast, journalists understand that they get a free shot at many other politicians who don’t have the protective infrastructure that surrounds the Bush family. Take for example the case of reporters for the New York Times and the Washington Post who misquoted Al Gore about his role in the Love Canal toxic waste clean-up.

'Delusional'

The misquote in late 1999 prompted knee-slapping commentaries across the country calling Gore “delusional” because he supposedly had falsely claimed credit for the Love Canal clean-up by saying “I was the one that started it all.” But Gore actually had said, “that was the one that started it all,” referring to a similar toxic waste case in Toone, Tennessee.

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/011705.html