The sometimes-excitable Howard Kurtz does a calm, thorough job of turning Mary Mapes’ comeback tour inside out:
Mapes is now pushing a book, called “Truth and Duty,” about the botched “60 Minutes II” story on Bush’s National Guard service that led to her firing. She ladles out plenty of blame but largely defends what she still considers a fair piece of reporting, although an independent panel accused CBS of having “failed miserably” to authenticate the documents before rushing the story to air…[snip]
“Truth and Duty” unloads on Rove, the White House senior adviser, calling him “the mastermind of the Republican attack against the story.” Asked about this, Mapes said Rove was “an inspirational figure” for the critics. “I’m not saying I had any proof at all” of his involvement.
Three of CBS’s own document experts say they had warned CBS they could not authenticate the memos. Mapes’s source for the documents, former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, later admitted lying about who had given him the memos said to have been written by Bush’s long-dead Guard commander. “Document analysis is a real subjective profession,” said Mapes, who still believes the memos are real. “You can find one to say yea or nay on anything”…[snip]
Perhaps her greatest fury is reserved for the “vicious” bloggers who pounced on the “60 Minutes II” report within hours — and who she believes provided the map that major news organizations, including The Washington Post, essentially followed.
“I was attacked, Dan was attacked, CBS was attacked 24 hours a day by people who hid behind screen names,” Mapes said. “I may be a flawed journalist, but I put my name on things.” Some of the key bloggers, however, posted criticism under their own names.
She set them up, Kurtz knocked them down. Don’t expect the King of Softballs to be as rigorous when he has Mapes on tonight at 9 p.m. EST.
P.S. Political Teen has the video of Mapes’ appearance on “Good Morning America” this morning.