CBS' "Independent Review" was in fact repub review. Palast says

[rumpel]

"Independent" my ass. CBS' cowardly purge of five journalists who exposed George Bush's dodging of the Vietnam War draft was done under cover of what the network laughably called an "Independent Review Panel."

The "panel" was just two guys as qualified for the job as they are for landing the space shuttle: Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi.

Remember Dickie Thornburgh? He was on the Bush 41 administration's payroll. His grand accomplishment as Bush's attorney general was to whitewash the investigation of the Exxon Valdez Oil spill, letting the oil giant off the hook on big damages. Thornburgh's fat pay as counsel to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, the Washington law-and-lobbying outfit, is substantially due to his job as a Bush retainer. This is the kind of stinky conflict of interest that hardly suggests "independent." Why not just appoint Karl Rove as CBS' grand inquisitor and be done with it?

Read on at
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20979/

[aquart]

1. Surprise!

[rumpel]

2. The treatment of journalists who dare to speak against Bush, here is Helen

Weapons of Mass Destruction and Exchange with Helen Thomas

Press Secretary McClellan noted that the Iraq Survey Group is still operating in Iraq and will follow up any leads indicating that Weapons of Mass Destruction do exist in Iraq. McClellan did add, however, that the Iraq Survey Group is not actively looking for WMD and that perhaps a few people on the ground are continuing to look into this matter. McClellan then noted that in October, President Bush did state that the U.S. must find out why intelligence was flawed regarding this issue. Helen Thomas continued to ask follow up questions about WMD, until she was interrupted by McClellan. The Press Secretary noted that Thomas was on the record stating that the U.S. is not better off now that Saddam Hussein is out of power, adding that he can produce transcripts of Thomas' comments to support this point. Thomas denied this assertion, stating that she never made such a comment, instead stating that she had questioned in the past why so many innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed during this conflict. McClellan answered that this was his briefing and that Thomas could offer her political views from the stakeout, a microphone stand located outside the White House briefing room. Thomas replied that this was her "house too."

from
http://www.talkradionews.com/news/article.php?articleID=342

[grasswire]

3. so..........

Karl Rove had reason to want to burn Mary Mapes:

And who are the journalists whom CBS has burned at the corporate stake? The first lined up for career execution is 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes. Besides the Bush draft-dodge story, Mapes produced the exposé of the torture at Abu Ghraib when other networks had the same material and buried it.

Looks like Rove got quite a bang for his buck. Rather, CBS, Mapes, Burkett, Kerry.....any more?

[candy331]

4. It would be nice if Danny boy would yet have an ace in the whole on the

whole story and then get Rove, Bush,and the whole cabal,now that would really be bang for the buck. Wishful thinking I guess.