Contrary to what her most strident detractors would have us believe, Mary Mapes is not the devil. What she is is a journalist who found a story to tell and then tried to tell it ... before she should have. A series of memos alleged to have been written by George W. Bush's commander in the Texas Air Guard served as the lynchpin to her 2004 60 Minutes II story on Bush's military service record and then served as the rope with which she was lynched herself in a series of angry blogs and mainstream media reports that decried the memos as forgeries. No one actually proved the memos were fakes, but then no one actually proved they were genuine, either, and given their mysterious origins, that proved to be a fatal mistake for Mapes' career as a producer at CBS News. Mapes recounting of the research she did for the story is interesting and compelling, and the conclusions she drew regarding the President's military record ring true, and given the persistent rumors that have surrounded his years as a Guardsman and the zeal with which his supporters have tried to discount them, they probably are: You know, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and all that. But those memos, genuine or not, were definitely not quite ready for prime time, which became even more clear when their origins came under closer scrutiny. Mapes belief in the memos' authenticity is understandable, but making a case and winning a case are two different things, and after a while one starts feeling bludgeoned by flawed reasoning. The fact is, Mapes never really knew where the documents came from, and that ignorance left a gaping hole in her story that was exploited with stunning ferocity. Mapes recounting of CBS's response to the attacks and the investigation that led to her firing is as bitter and one-sided as one might expect, but then corporations aren't widely known to be courageous champions of loyalty, integrity and fairness. Corporations champion profits, and regardless of the substance behind her report, Mapes simply wasn't profitable anymore. The reminder that people are so easily disposed is probably more disturbing than any revelations this book has to offer about George W. Bush's military service. I was in elementary school in those years, and I was aware even then that the National Guard was considered a safe haven for guys who might otherwise have had to go to Vietnam, so the fact Bush was in the Guard at all suggests a story less glamorous than the "official" version. The problem is Mapes tried to tell the story before she really had it and inadvertently managed to turn it into something else -- a story about her. That's too bad, because the original story could have really been a good one.Read full review
Condition of book was excellent. Good purchase on my part.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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