Well, well, well...

[Yonivore]

Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/9715708.htm)

Okay, I didn't bother to read beyond the first sentence but, I think that says it all.


"NEW YORK - At the behest of CBS, an adviser to John Kerry said he talked to a central figure in the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service shortly before disputed documents were released."
Why would CBS "behest" the Kerry campaign to talk to one of their sources? Did they similarly "behest" the Bush campaign to talk to the same source?

I'm smelling collusion...

[Yonivore]

Okay, I read further:


"Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the presidential campaign and the papers. Lockhart, the second Kerry ally to confirm contact with retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, said he made the call at the suggestion of CBS producer Mary Mapes.

"He had some advice on how to deal with the Vietnam issue and the Swift boat" allegations, Lockhart said Monday, referring to GOP-fueled accusations that Kerry exaggerated his Vietnam War record. "He said these guys play tough and we have to put the Vietnam experience into context and have Kerry talk about it more."
So, See-BS is calling the Kerry campaign and giving them tips on who can help them weather the Swiftboat ads?

Is this starting to reek yet?

[LandSharkII]

http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/1945.jpg

[Yonivore]

Lockhart said Mapes asked him the weekend before the story broke to call Burkett. "She basically said there's a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you," Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records "that might move the story forward. She didn't tell me what they said."
Is it just me or is Mapes just a little too chummy with the Kerry camp?

Really, why is she giving them tips and heads-up and such? This story has feet, as they say.

[Guru of Nothing]

Damn! I thought this was a John Lennon thread.

[Tommy Duncan]

So it's leading back to the Kerry campaign. Surprise, surprise.

[Yonivore]

I'm not surprised.

What surprises me is that Joe Lockhart all but admitted that CBS's Mapes was working with them to undermine the Swiftboat Vets and attack Bush.

But, wait! Maybe Joe Lockhart, being a Clinton goon, is just doing what Hitlary wants...making sure there's no Demoncrat incumbent to run against in '08.

What else makes sense?

[Tommy Duncan]

So now we move from Rather's obfuscations and unwillingness to admit the obvious truth to the Kerry campaign...

But I know, it's really Fox News who does this stuff. Yeah.

[Yonivore]

I'd like to hear how DeSPURate or Nbadanallah explain Joe Lockhart's strange admission.

[Yonivore]

Seriously, Nbadanallah and DeSPURate, are you not troubled that a spokesperson of the Kerry Campaign has admitted to working with a major network news producer on strategy to undermine the Swiftboat Vets and President Bush?

This doesn't worry you?

[Nbadan]

Seriously, Nbadanallah and DeSPURate, are you not troubled that a spokesperson of the Kerry Campaign has admitted to working with a major network news producer on strategy to undermine the Swiftboat Vets and President Bush?

I think you need to ease up on the Prozac. CBS may or may not have put Burkett in contact with the Kerry administration, but it is clear that whatever Burkett wanted to talk to the Kerry campaign about, it didn't have anything to do with the Bush Memos


"My interest was to get the attention of the national (campaign) to defend against the ... attacks," Burkett said, adding that he also talked to former Georgia senator Max Cleland and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean during the past 45 days. "Neither the Democratic Party or the Kerry campaign had anything to do with the documents," he said.

Lockhart said he phoned Burkett at the number provided by CBS. Lockhart also said that the documents never came up in his conversation with Burkett. Lockhart said the conversation lasted just a few minutes. "It's possible that the producer said they had documents" before his conversation with Burkett, he said.

At the end of the conversation, Lockhart said he thanked Burkett for his interest, and there was no further contact with him. Asked why he called Burkett, Lockhart said he talks to "a lot of people."

USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-20-cbs-documents_x.htm)

[Yonivore]

I'm sorry, maybe you missed it:

Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/9715708.htm)

"NEW YORK - At the behest of CBS, an adviser to John Kerry said Monday he talked to a central figure in the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service shortly before disputed documents were released. The White House accused Kerry's campaign of fanning the controversy over Bush's military service.

Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the presidential campaign and the papers. Lockhart, the second Kerry ally to confirm contact with retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, said he made the call at the suggestion of CBS producer Mary Mapes.

"He had some advice on how to deal with the Vietnam issue and the Swift boat" allegations, Lockhart said, referring to GOP-fueled accusations that Kerry exaggerated his Vietnam War record. "He said these guys play tough and we have to put the Vietnam experience into context and have Kerry talk about it more."
...
"Lockhart said Mapes asked him the weekend before the story broke to call Burkett. "She basically said there's a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you," Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records "that might move the story forward. She didn't tell me what they said."
At the "behest" of CBS, Lockhart contacted Burkett? Why did Mapes call Lockhart and why is she behesting him to call Burkett? Sounds like collusion to me. I think this is an astonishing admission on the part of Joe Lockhart.

CBS arranged for meeting with Lockhart (http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+CBS+arranged+for+meeting+with+Lockhart&expire=&urlID=11703685&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitic selections%2Fnation%2Fpresident%2F2004-09-20-cbs-documents_x.htm&partnerID=1660)

[Nbadan]

At the "behest" of CBS, Lockhart contacted Burkett? Why did Mapes call Lockhart and why is she behesting him to call Burkett? Sounds like collusion to me. I think this is an astonishing admission on the part of Joe Lockhart

First off, behesting is not a word. The suggestion to call Burkett wasn't behest by anyone. It was neither authoritative nor urgent for Lockhart to call Burkett. As I've already posted, and as mentioned in the USA Today article, the conversation did not center on any type of collusion between the Kerry campaign and Burkett regarding the Bush Memos.

[Tommy Duncan]

Lockhart says that Lockhart did not talk to Burkett about the docs.

[Yonivore]

Okay, let me see if I can simplify this for Nbadanallah.

Why did Mary Mapes call the Kerry Campaign and why, on her tip did the Kerry Campaign contact Bill Burkett?

[Joe Chalupa]

:sleep

[Nbadan]

Why did Mary Mapes call the Kerry Campaign and why, on her tip did the Kerry Campaign contact Bill Burkett?

We already know that they were working on a similiar story, that's no secret, but it hardly proves that there was any collusion between Burkett and CBS or the DNC.

[Yonivore]

So, it's just coincidental the Kerry campaign rolled out it's "Operation Fortunate Son" theme at the same time?

I don't buy and if you do, you're an idiot.

But, you said something interesting that I'd like to follow up on.

"We already know that they were working on a similiar story, that's no secret,..."
Why was a Network News organization pooling its resources with a Presidential Campaign's opposition research team? Sure, See BS and the Kerryistas were working on a similar storyline but, why would See BS help the Kerry campaign by linking them up with Burkett?

That's the $64,000.00 question.

[Tommy Duncan]

We already know that they were working on a similiar story, that's no secret, but it hardly proves that there was any collusion between Burkett and CBS or the DNC.

:lol Funny how the "fortunate son" campaign was just a total coincidence.

At this point one wonders if Kerry and the DNC aren't just going to propogate anti-Bush/anti-Iraq war attacks from now until the election so that Democrat down ballot candidates don't suffer due to the weakness of the party's presidential candidate.

[Yonivore]

CBS Steered Forged Doc Source to Kerry Campaign (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/20/225421.shtml)

"Late Monday, CBS said it was investigating the role of '60 Minutes' star producer Mary Mapes in setting up the contact between Burkett and Lockhart."
See BS investigating itself? Yeah...what a concept.

"'The network's effort to place Burkett in contact with a top Democratic official raises ethical questions about CBS' handling of material potentially damaging to the Republican president in the midst of an election,' the paper said."
Gee, ya think?

[Tommy Duncan]

The following documents the timeline of the CBS report and the emergence of the "Texans for Truth" as well as the DNC "Fortunate Son" campaign.

The source is perhaps less than ideal, but given what is put up to be reliable by some other posters in here I think it will do.

Of course, a few suspicious bloggers stripped the Tiffany Network's news organization down and publicly flogged it so this blogger might be on to something...


www.balloon-juice.com/arc...04407.html (http://www.balloon-juice.com/archives/004407.html)




September 21, 2004

CBS and The DNC

Last week, I tried to make some sense of CBS's stonewalling inthe faceof obvious forgeries, and I noted:

I think we are now to the point where CBS is frantically trying to minimize the damage, and this statement, while it says nothing, really, is rather inciteful. It seems pretty clear to me that they understand how damaging this memogate bit has been to their reputation and their credibility. However, they have determined that revealing their sources and methodology in a forthright, open statement would be more damaging still.
I think we are going to learn, in the not so distant future, about a serious incestuous relationship between CBS News and some person, persons, or group. I also bet we will see a bit of the sausage making- and these facts terrify CBS. The only reasoning I can come up for this continued self-inflicted wound is the fear that the truth is much more damaging than the current stonewalling. Right now, they merely appear incompetent, and they have determined incompetence is better than complicit.


Enter Joe Lockhart:

CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.

Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.


Where does lead us? I think we can put to rest CBS's latest remarks that this was simply a mistake, an error in judgement. It now appears that in order for the piece to be aired, the following had to happen:

- Ben Barnes refused to go on 60 Minutes unless he was assured that he would not be the only person making the charges. Barnes had made the charges CBS intended to use numerous times, and was well aware that he had credibility issues. So, in order for Barnes to speak, there had to be another angle to the story.

- Because they had no story without Barnes, CBS defied reality and trusted Bill Burkett. Not only did they trust Burkett, which is by itself insane, but they marketed him as an unimpeachable source, despite the fact that he never proved to them where the documents came from. This follow-up interview shows that he just threw a name out, and that was good enough for them.

- Once they received the documents, they ignored all of their experts, ignored the wife of Lt. Col. Killian, ignored Killian's son, and only superficially interviewed Hodges. Why? Why would they be so willing to go forward with these obviously fraudulent documents? The answer, again, is because they had to, otherwise Ben Barnes would not come forward again.

- In order to get the documents, they had to play go-between for Bill Burkett and the Kerry campaign. Why?

In short- Dan Rather and Mary Mapes were writing a hit piece- they 'knew' the real story, they just needed anything they could find to back it up. Listen to the company line today- the memos were 'fake but accurate.' They still believe they have proven their point, despite the fact that they have done nothing of the sort. They had to have Ben Barnes speak- his testimony was, for the uninitiated, damning. But in order to have Ben Barnes, they had to have something else- and that is where the whacko Burkett comes into the story. Each part of the story was built on the other, and all of it was based on nonsense.

Which begs the question- where did the forgeries come from, and is it unrealistic to envision DNC involvement. We already know that Joe Lockhart was involved, and his simple denial does not cut it. Ben Barnes, Bill Burkett, and Dan Rather's daughter are all Kerry and DNC fund raisers. Why is Bill Burkett claiming he handed documents to Max Cleland? What of the mysterious Kerry opposition researcher who received similar documents?

And before you totally deny any collusion between the DNC and the 60 minutes crew and the Burkett/Barnes interlopers, let's examine what happened around the time of the CBS airing:

September 8th- the CBS 60 Minutes hit piece airs

Also on Septmeber 8th, Texans for Truth, a virtual arm for the Kerry/Edwards campaign and the DNC, launch their attack ads.

September 9th- DNC launches 'Fortunate Son' campaign:

Seizing on 30-year-old memos and memories, Sen. John Kerry's operatives are painting an unflattering portrait of President Bush as the "fortunate son" who used family connections to dodge the Vietnam War and then lied about it...
The DNC has nicknamed its effort "Operation Fortunate Son" after a Creedence Clearwater Revival anti-war anthem from the 1960s. The song speaks of the privileged few, "born silver spoon in hand," who send others to war.

Bush is not the "senator's son" written about in the song, but he's the son of a former president who served in the House during the Vietnam War.

Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, a Kerry supporter, says he helped Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam.

As a young lieutenant, Bush was "talking to someone upstairs" and trying to "get out of coming to drill," according to newly unearthed memos by the late Col. Jerry B. Killian, squadron commander for Bush in Texas.


September 9th- Tom Harkin, 'war hero,' attacks:

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin had a strong reaction to newly released records about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.
On Wednesday, CBS' "60 Minutes" reported that records kept by Bush's former commanding officer show Col. Jerry Killian was pressured to give Bush positive evaluations.

Bush told reporters that he received no special treatment.

Harkin said these records show that the president hasn't been honest.

"The documentation shows that the president was not being truthful," Harkin said. "The president lied to the American people in the Oval Office when he spoke with Tim Russert. That's why this is news. It goes to the character of George W. Bush."


September 10th- Terry McAulliffe states:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said more than a dozen times Friday that President Bush had lied to the American public. "It has become crystal clear that the president has lied to the American public about his military service," McAuliffe said.

September 10th- The coordinated DNC attack is vetted by the Boston Globe:

The Kerry campaign and leading Democrats yesterday launched a new line of attack aimed at President Bush's character, using military veterans and political allies to accuse him of skirting his National Guard service requirements during the Vietnam War and charge that such behavior foreshadowed Bush's "dishonesty" in justifying the invasion of Iraq. Advisers to Democratic nominee John F. Kerry said they helped craft the battle plan with the Democratic National Committee but were leaving it to the DNC to execute to keep Kerry publicly above the fray and focused on criticizing the incumbent's leadership -- as he did in a speech in New Orleans yesterday where he compared Bush's policies to racist "Jim Crow" laws...
The White House yesterday accused the Kerry camp of directly coordinating attacks on Bush's record to try to shake up the race given recent national polls showing Bush had pulled ahead of Kerry 54 days before the election.

"It's not surprising that you see a coordinated effort by Democrats to attack the president when Senator Kerry is falling behind in the polls," Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Air Force One. "These are the same old recycled attacks that we see every time the president is up for election."


Really though- this is all just a coincidence. Joe Lockhart meeting with Bill Burkett via 60 Minutes several days before the 60 Minutes piece aired had nothing to do with the timing and shape of the attacks from the Democrats. Just a big, fuzzy, uncoordinated occurrence. Don't read anything into it at all.

*** Update ***

Just goes to show you that you should read all the blogs in your blogroll before you write big posts. The Baseball Crank and Tom Maguire also explore this timing. I wasn't the only one to put two and two together.

Other's discussing this timeline are AllahPundit and Jeff Goldstein.

An enterprising member of the Pajamahadeen might take all the dates and links provided by me, Jeff, Crank, Tom, and Allah, and make one big whopper of a timeline.

*** Update #2 ***

The folks at the Political Brief have this little web of connections. It is a start.


http://www.balloon-juice.com/archives/barnes_burkett_lockhart_mapes_60minutes.jpg

[Nbadan]

:sleep

More right wing witch hunting over a 3-4 minute conversation Lockhart may have had with Burkett.

Where is the call for a investigation into Buckhead, and the RNC's connection in the "alleged" fake Bush memos? God knows they prefected this move with the fake Niger documents.

[Tommy Duncan]

So either you have a Kerry aide talking to the man who gave the fake docs to CBS in a call arranged by a CBS employee no less

...or...

you have someone posting in a forum that he thought the docs were fake.

I appreciate your satire but doesn't it get old?

[Tommy Duncan]

www.opinionjournal.com/ed...=110005650 (http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005650)

Modified Limited Hangout
The Rather story looks more and more like a partisan dirty trick.

The Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, September 21, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

The big news in yesterday's mea culpa by CBS News isn't that the network was "misled" about "documents whose authenticity is in doubt," as it was finally forced to concede. The story is the admission that the source Dan Rather trusted with CBS's reputation was none other than Bill Burkett, a noted antagonist of President Bush.

Journalists--including us--use all manner of sources, of course, and many of them are partisans of one kind or another. But as much as possible we owe readers an indication of where those sources are coming from. And if those sources turn out to be wrong, as they sometimes are, then our obligation is to own up to the error as soon as possible.

The problem in this case is that before yesterday CBS never gave its viewers even a hint that its entire controversial story hinged on the word of someone who has made it one of his main goals in life to defeat Mr. Bush. Even after the documents on Mr. Bush's National Guard service were called into question, CBS refused to let viewers in on the secret of its source's motives.

This is the real scandal here, and it makes us wonder if Mr. Burkett is the end of this story. It isn't as if Mr. Burkett's motives were hard to discover. On August 25, addressing Mr. Bush in the second person, Mr. Burkett wrote in a Web posting, "I know from your files that we have now reassembled, the fact that you did not fulfill your oath, taken when you were commissioned to 'obey the orders of the officers appointed over you.' "

More intriguing, in an August 21 posting, Mr. Burkett said he had spoken with Max Cleland, the former Georgia Senator and fierce John Kerry advocate, about how to respond to Republican campaign tactics. "I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. He said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with. But none of them have called me back."

This, believe it or not, is the source Mr. Rather described as "unimpeachable." The kindest interpretation is that the famous anchor and CBS were gullible. But perhaps they will forgive their audience for also now suspecting some partisan bias--especially in light of an interview with Mr. Rather that the trade publication Broadcasting & Cable published August 30.

Asked if the media were paying too much attention to the Swift Boat Veterans' criticisms of John Kerry, Mr. Rather replied: "In the end, what difference does it make what one candidate or the other did or didn't do during the Vietnam War? In some ways, that war is as distant as the Napoleonic campaigns." Yet nine days later Mr. Rather was reporting on Mr. Bush's National Guard service as if it were the story of a lifetime.

CBS said yesterday that Mr. Burkett admits giving "a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source." Mr. Burkett and CBS have not revealed that source, but we know he had contact with a Kerry surrogate, Mr. Cleland, who expressed a desire to "counterattack."

We also know that Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe was quick to offer his own theory--that Karl Rove had fabricated the documents. And we know that the day after Mr. Rather's report aired, the Democrats unveiled "Operation Fortunate Son," a campaign video about Mr. Bush's National Guard service that incorporated footage from "60 Minutes."

All of this raises the question of whether CBS was a vessel for, if not a willing participant in, a partisan dirty trick two months before a closely contested Presidential election. Last week Mr. Rather told the Washington Post that "if the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story." It was too late for that; Web writers and other news organizations had beaten him to it. But if CBS wants to restore the credibility it enjoyed back in the era of Edward R. Murrow, it will now get to the bottom of the story behind Mr. Rather's discredited story.

[xrayzebra]

Mr. NBADAn, get a brain and use it once in awhile.
It would be so refreshing, to you and the rest of us.
Your stupidity is only exceeded by your hatred for Bush.

[SAmikeyp]

Some people need to get fired over this. All politics aside...who was the dumbass that let this make it on air without making sure it was 100% accurate.

[Yonivore]

uh, SAmikeyp, that was intentional...it wasn't a mistake.

And, Nbadanallah keeps avoiding the real issue...since when is it ethical for a Network News division to feed information to a Political campaign's opposition research team?

To his credit, Al Gore rejected the debate prep tape sent to him by a partisan...and then, called the police. Al Gore also rejected overtures from Bill Burkett-type (maybe even Bill Burkett) about unsubstantiated allegations similar to what Dan Rather vomited onto the airwaves a couple of weeks ago.

What does the Kerry Camp do? They call the guy. Why? Because CBS asked them to..according to Joe Lockhart. Why would CBS be asking a Political Campaign to contact a confidential source on a Bush-bashing story?

That, again, is the $64,000 question.

Nbadanallah?

[Yonivore]

Oh yeah, I hear Mary Mapes dad is calling her a left wing nut today. Mary's stepmom told him to shut up.

[SAmikeyp]

my point was that even if no political motives are involved....journalists should be held accountable for accuracy....hence someone needs to be shown the door.

[Yonivore]

I agree.

The truth of the matter is, had it been a simple mistake, they could have admitted it, apologized to the public and the President (who was slandered by the story) and we'd of probably let them move on.

However, the stonewalling by Rather and the network put blood in the water and, voila', a political scandal was born!

[Tommy Duncan]

Rather's ratings have crated since this episode began.

[Yonivore]

They'd be even worse if there weren't so many of us waiting for him to have an on-air seizure.

Seriously! Who wants to miss his last broadcast?

Do you think he'll end it with some clever, pithy little catch-word, like "Courage?" Or, will he just tell the President to go **** himself?