All Blog Posts from Public Eye

When Mary Mapes’s new book, “Truth and Duty” came out last week, I pledged a full reading and a review for you. I’m going to modify that pledge somewhat after reading it and give you something less than a point-by-point critique. That’s because I fully anticipated some new information to be presented by Mapes, something that would at least throw some serious shadows or some light on the Thornburgh-Boccardi report, if not a smoking gun. I thought there would be a strong journalistic reason to write about the book here.



Instead, what we get is Mary Mapes' justification of her own self-declared martyrdom and nothing more except, perhaps, a glimpse of how she sees the world. What we don’t get is humility, new facts or any acceptance of responsibility for her role in a story that spawned an independent investigation and further tarnished the reputation of the media as whole, and CBS News in particular.



Stunningly, Mapes has taken the failings of the National Guard story and turned it into a kind of personal credo. She believed (and still does) the documents she used in the Guard story were valid and authentic but couldn’t prove them to be (and still can’t). She believed (and still does) that the documents did not need to be authenticated to be used on the air. She believed (and still does) that President Bush “walked out on his duty” but just couldn’t quite nail it down (and still can’t). In the book, she offers lots of her thoughts about Texas politics, corruption in the Air National Guard and good-old-boy networks but nothing in the way of hard, substantial proof.



And she approaches the book in the same way. She believes that she and her story were the victims of a coordinated political attack by Bush supporters. She even claims that Bush aide Karl Rove “was the mastermind of the Republican attack against the story.” But again, there’s no evidence brought forth-- just assertion, not even argument. Mapes claims a corporate executive harangued her about the damage her stories had done to Viacom’s bottom line. Who? We don’t know, she isn’t telling. And we’re told that the independent panel was a whitewash, engineered by nervous power brokers who feared the White House. Sexy claim, no actual proof.

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For most ordinary folks – by “ordinary,” I mean non-journalists – it must be seem like an obvious point when they hear someone complaining about the way the media treats individuals. Who hasn’t felt a wave of revulsion when they see some local reporter shove a microphone in the face of a man or woman and asking something like, “You’ve just lost your entire family in this fire, how does that make you feel?” Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not a real big one.



The press also gets beaten on by anyone who’s been caught in a “feeding frenzy.” One day you’re out jogging by yourself and decide to skip town before your wedding, a few days later you can’t walk by a window in your own home without some photographer’s telephoto lens capturing your silhouette through your drawn shades. Anyone who’s driven by the site of a news event knows that entire villages pop up, sometimes complete with satellite trucks, trailers and vendors.



In short, the media can be pretty obnoxious, rude and disruptive when given a chance, and a big enough story. Nobody knows this better than the people in the press themselves which is why it’s always a little surprising to hear the same type of complaints coming from them. But it seems that almost every time their own turn on them, a journalist pulls out the old card about an out-of-control media.

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Since Public Eye wasn’t on the pre-approved list of reviewers for the book written by former CBS News producer Mary Mapes about Memogate, we had to wait until it hit bookstores yesterday to get a copy. I’ll have my review of Mapes’ account when I’ve read the entire book but in the meantime it’s worth pointing out some of the comments and reaction to her PR tour for the book. For the most part, you can take what you want from these tidbits I’ve pulled out. I’ll have my say soon, but you can read my earlier take on Memogate here.


In her first television interview since the National Guard story, Mapes sat with ABC’s Brian Ross to talk about the events surrounding the story and her book. She defended the story and asserted, “I think I’m somebody who got fired for trying to do their job in a difficult atmosphere,” adding, “I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't.”


Ross asked Mapes if she still believed the story on President Bush’s National Guard service was true and she answered, “absolutely.” She said of the Killian memos, which were used to validate the story before their authenticity came under intense scrutiny, that they have not proven to be inauthentic, adding, “I’m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there’s proof I haven’t seen.” Ross asked Mapes if the standard ought not to have been for her to prove their authenticity, to which she responded, “I don’t think that’s the standard.” (If that’s not a basic standard of journalism and professionalism, I don’t know what is).


Update: American Journalism Review's Rem Rieder weighs in with his take.

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Former CBS News producer Mary Mapes, a central figure in “Memogate,” is just about out with a new book that gives her take on the story, its production and the independent panel that looked into it. The upcoming issue of Vanity Fair (tip of the hat to Romenesko) has some excerpts for those interested.



We’ll wait to read the entire book (in bookstores next week) before commenting on it, but if you missed my take on the National Guard story, you can read it here.

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For some, whether or not Public Eye speaks out on Memogate has become a litmus test of our seriousness, guts and honesty. I think that's sort of silly. Our mission at Public Eye is to facilitate discussion, answer questions and open up the process at CBS News, not to offer my opinions in a straight “ombudsman” fashion.



Still, the question comes up over and over and lurks just beneath the surface of almost everything we do. The reality is that this week’s change of leadership at CBS News brings the issue to the forefront once again. A new account of the episode, written by former producer Mary Mapes, is also due to hit bookstores shortly. So I’ll try to address it here, offer some of my personal thoughts and, hopefully, help to answer some of the questions.



Long before PE debuted, the questions I was most often asked were: Would Memogate have happened if Public Eye had been around then? And, what difference would Public Eye have made?



Would the story have gone on the air? Probably, but it’s impossible to be certain. What I can say is it’s very unlikely I or anyone else at PE would have known about the story prior to the time the public in general was alerted to it. Even in the event we would have had any knowledge that “60 Minutes Wednesday” was preparing a story on President Bush’s National Guard service, we certainly would not have been involved in the preparation or vetting of it. Whether the mere presence of PE would have caused those in charge to be more cautious can’t be known but I doubt it.



What difference would PE have made? Well, from the day after the show on, we would have written about it. We would have noted the criticisms made on various blogs starting immediately after the show and would have asked CBS executives in charge about them. I like to think our involvement in that process would have altered the way in which CBS responded, that fuller answers would have been forthcoming in a timelier manner. The truth is, I don’t know.

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