Amazon has released the first chapter of “Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power,” which is former CBS producer Mary Mapes’ account of the Rathergate/Bush National Guard documents scandal. One passage from the chapter offers an insight into how former CBS anchorman Dan Rather exacerbated the network’s problems by insisting, without further investigation, that the “60 Minutes II” story on the president’s service in the Texas Air National Guard was accurate:
Dan told me he was confident in the story and that he was lucky to work with me. He signed off by saying something that had become a shorthand for us over the years: “F-E-A.” That was code for “F—’Em All,” a sentiment that needed to be expressed from time to time in any newsroom. Dan was too much of a gentleman to say the real thing—at least most of the time. But he knew that when I was under deadline or work pressure I was hard put to find any sentence that couldn’t be improved by the liberal use of the “f”-word. At this point, I deeply appreciated the sentiment.