Letters to the Editor
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Yo Corporal...
...i too was born in 1948 and did not serve in the military. i and many others were physically defered. your punching bag, clinton, got student deferments (like your hero dick cheney, though cheney beat him 5-2). i still can't understand why a marine would defend bush...must be something in the chow...
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What conspiracy?
That Rather's bosses didn't like him, or that the American media is incompetent?
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re: Anonymous
Taliesan
"No, you don't actually. The whole purpose of impeachment is that it ammounts to being a trial. You don't have to prove a criminal guily before you try him, you have to prove that you have a case."
Sorry but you're incorrect. An impeachment is similar to a Grand Jury which basically determines whether or not a trial is necessary. The House of Representatives serves as the jury in an impeachment proceeding and if impeached, the trial is conducted by the Senate.
HOWEVER, as in a Grand Jury, sufficient evidence MUST be available before a Grand Jury OR an impeachment proceeding is to occur...otherwise, those instigating a Grand Jury OR an impeachment hearing will only look ridiculous in the public eye - and, in the case of politicians, possible affect their OWN political careers.
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Anonymous
Thankyou for the correction.
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Cpl. Groenhagen
First, thank you for serving our country as a Marine.
I'm curious why the idea of Rather suing CBS is offensive to you. Let them fight it out in court and we'll see what happens. What's the harm in that? It seems like you are just mad that someone is making unflattering accusations about Bush. Why does that bring this high degree of rage in you? Is he not a grown man, tough and resourceful, able to take care of himself in these matters?
Whatever Blumenthal may or may not have done, all he is doing here is reporting and commenting. If your beef is with him, then perhaps it's not the lawsuit itself that chaps you? The lawsuit is okay with you; you just want Blumenthal to shut up?
I mean no disrespect, either to you or to your CIC. I just want to understand why this issue in particular brings out this visceral response.
Respectfully,
Gordon Ginsberg -
Re:re: statute of limitations
Actually, there's evidence that bush didn't report to duty. The woman who housed him in Alabama, a friend of the Bush family, laughed when asked about this. She said that he never did and that the National Guard duty was never even brought up. Apparently, he was spending his time getting drunk and being obnoxious, the story of his life. How difficult would that be to bring up in a desertion trial?
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"...CBS tried to suppress the report..."
That's an interesting take. That CBS attempted to "suppress the report."
CBS hired Mapes, and Rather.
CBS let Mapes run with the story. Maybe CBS didn't know about Mapes' profound animus toward President Bush, but that's hard to believe. Everyone seems to have known about Mapes. But CBS hired her anyway, and let her produce stories for 60 Minutes. My guess is that CBS thought that Mapes anti-Republican bias was no handicap wahtosever, would have denied that there was any bias, and just wanted splashy news, whoever produced it.
Then, of course, CBS actually aired the Mapes-produced/Rather-hosted story.
CBS didn't 'suppress' the story in any way.
And even in the immediate aftermath, after the network's journalistic reputation was tarnished, with pajama-clad bloggers pointing out the shockingly amateurish forgeries that Mapes and Rather themsleves thought were so impotnat in the broadcast, CBS still initially stuck by Mapes and Rather.
And this is all "suppression" ?
More and more, I am loving the idea of this lawsuit. Dan Rather really is the gift that keeps on giving. Somewhere, I am sure that somebody is compiling all of Rather's apologies and mea culpas for the forged documents. All of his inconsistent statements on the subject. And all of Mary Mapes' Bush-hating rhetoric. I'll look forward to publication of any statements made under oath in the Thornburgh investigation. This new lawusit will do much to show the role of Dan Rather as little more than a talking head; if he had wanted to, he might have fessed up to his purely ceremonial role, and said, "Hell, I was just the narrator for that story. Don't blame me." But Rather's gigantic ego would never allow that, and now his gigantic ego won't allow him to let this pointless story go away and die like it should.
Walter Cronkite said he'd have fired Rather over that screwy scene where the Evening News was bumped back by a women's tennis match and Rather walked off the set. That would have saved CBS a lot of headaches.
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Rather
This story is absolutely no surprise to me. Several years ago I ceased watching TV Networks because I could see from comparing items I saw on TV news with the same items on the Net that the Networks could not be trusted to tell you the truth or even a semblance of same. Believe me I am very happy with the quality and quantity of the news I receive on the Net and I don't bother with the TV Network websites as they wouldn't be any better than their TV broadcasts. The so called "astute" Network executives are destroying their own networks with their political interference with the news. Once a viewer has decided to find his news elsewhere it leads to him finding his entertainment elsewhere. Tell that to the advertisers!
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The bias story
We are told the media has a liberal bias.
We are told education has a liberal bias.
We are told historians have a liberal bias.
We are told scientists have a liberal bias.
We are told artists have a liberal bias.
We are told that America's blogs, which are really the personal thoughts of Americans, have a liberal bias.
I am sure pretty soon we will get told word of mouth has a liberal bias.
By now, I have stopped believing in this so-called liberal bias and started believing that righties just whine when the facts don't fit their views.
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DIGGING FOR THE TRUTH
No one will ever convince me that the report by Dan Rather on George Bush was not absolutly accurate. Like many other things that have come forth about Bush's activities, Bush's friends and families have managed to to seal the lips of the news media and prevented the truth from being published.
This administration from the very beginning of Bush's campaign for President in the 2000 election, was filled with lies about Gore. With the help of George Bush's brother Jeb Bush they managed to also control the votes in Florida which resulted in the Supreme Court making Bush the winner.
The American people can also place at the feet of the media the successful campaign of the Bush administration to get the American people to support the invasion of Iraq. Instead if digging for the truth they let it slide preferring to take the false information being distributed and air it over and over on most of the major news sources.
CBS allowed the Bush administration to goad them into aborting Dan Rather's report to the World about George Bush in the National Guard affair. Dan was compelled to bend to the powers that be and apoligize for his story on George Bush. It is a disgrace that the news media has aided and abeted Bush in his dirty little secret about his service in the National Guard and his living style during this time in his life.
It is my hope that Dan Rather will be successful in his suit. Perhaps if he is successful the major news services will once again support their Journalist who work so hard to get the truth to the American people instead of ducktaping them to keep the truth from emerging.