Koppel On Rather Suit: I Hope It Brings Him "Relief From His Pain"

Burning records is not a new way to dispose of things the military wants to forget ever happened.

I have a friend whose father was part of one of the first ground patrols to enter one of the bombed areas of Japan after a nuke was dropped. His and the records of those who served with him mysteriously "burned" in a fire at the storage facility they were housed in. I believe the military did this to cover evidence that he and his unit may have been exposed to cancer-causing radiation. He did get prostate and bone cancer in his 50s or 60s.

I saw an excellent site shortly after the story hit the news that dealt with the typewriter used during Bush's time in the Air National Guard supposedly not being used then and, therefore, impossible to have produced the records Rather had in his possession.

The article refuted that statement by actually naming the typewriter used by that very unit Bush belonged to and showing the font it produced which matched exactly what Dan Rather had.

naturally, that site disappeared faster than you can say DRUG-USING DRUNKEN DESERTER!

The documents that were used in the Rather report have Rove's fingerprints all over them.

These document are word for word and format for format identical to the real documents. They were recreated on a modern computer, and copied multiple times to look authentic.

These real fakes, faked out CBS, and they ran with the story in a fever pitch. It was a big risk by Rove, but it sure paid off big time.

Bush's checkered history in the National Guard was thrown off the table. and Rather got canned.

That's not a suit, Ted. It's a trenchcoat.

After the lessons learned from the Vietnam war, the MIC bought up
the MSM and this is an example of their intent. Fascist treason!

Early in 2009, we need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine for the
same reason it was instituted after WW2, to fight corporate fascism!

CBS News has become the journalistic equivalent
of the Bush Administration,in that it is under the control of incompetent neocon hucksters.

i hope Dan Rather not only gets his 70 mil,but I also hope CBS is forced to make a public apology and to admit it set the man up.

Let's hope Dan Rather's lawsuit helps to restore responsible journalism.

Regardless of the lawsuit, Dan rather was the only one that saw the evil objectives of the Bush administration. I admire his courage and I wish to see him back where he was.

Regarding CBS ABC, NBC etc, etc, they became trash, just trash.

Post by Johnbo on TV Week:

Mr. Koppel said the story was "much more correct than incorrect."

Um, what part of the story was "incorrect"?

FACT: Bush got into the TANG using family connections jumping ahead of thousands of other applicants. His test scores - the lowest possible to qualify as a pilot - and DUI offenses that would have disqualified him were overlooked.

FACT: Bush didn't complete his obligation to the TANG. He failed to take his annual physical even after being directed to do so by his commanding officer and was consequently removed from flight status - an evevt that would have warranted disiplinary actions for someone less politically connected. His attendance record at the guard unit that he transfered to was spotty and poorly documented but, at any rate, he ceased flying - the skill that the TANG had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars developing.

FACT: Bush was able to leave the TANG and go to graduate school before his time obligation was complete.

FACT: Karen Hughes oversaw a cleansing of Bush's guard records when Bush was govenor of Texas.

The only question regarding the 60 Minutes report - which Rather was only partially involved in producing - was the possibllity that the documents might be forged. People directly involved in the unit at the time testified to the accuracy of the events the documents reveal. Curiously, the Thornburg report never ruled that the documents were forged. While chastising the CBS crew for rushing the story to deadline and not adequately vetting the documements, the commission, with an unlimited amount of time, couldn't state that the documents were forged. Go figure!!

Give the right-wing spin machine and the compliant MSM for keeping the spotlight on Rather and CBS while missing the real story - a war time president who had used a guard unit to avoided the Viet Nam war and then failed to even complete his service.

Posted by Johnbo | September 25, 2007 9:01 AM

Men of integrity? We haven't had those in the news for many years. What we have are news readers. Some are pompous, some pretty boys and others are whiners, but they're all readers. And they all report it with a slant, one way or another. Dan, you went from pompous to whiner. Take your bruised, overblown ego and fade away like your dignity.

Back in the 90's, all the nut jobs on the Right swore up and down that President Clinton was murdering people in Mena, Arkansas and had a hand in the death of Vince Foster. Trouble is, for them, was that there was no evidence to prove those wild assertions.

Ten years later, we have all the nut jobs on the Left swearing that President Bush skipped out on his TANG duty. Trouble is, all the documents provided by Rather turned out to be provenly, patently false.

Now, journalists can have all the opinions they want. But the lack of credible documents would seem to refute, rather than prove, their theses.

Does everyone realize how really silly "fake but accurate" sounds? One would expect more of journalists. And to this day, we have no empirical evidence proving up these wild accusations - either against President Clinton or President Bush.

The shiftless eldest son of GHWB got passes all his life and was bailed out by his daddy's friends for numerous misadventures and failures. All Dumbya's drinking, cocaine use, AWOL and bankruptcies were covered up and the MIC owned MSM went obediently along.

Does anyone know how much his dad had to donate to Harvard for Dumbya's MBA? I imagine he earned it himself, just like he did every other thing that was given to him. GWB was the worst prepared and personally corrupt of any man to sit in the Oval office, worst ever!!

Hope $70 million eases his pain...That's double speak for "All of us wealthy newscasters who have been doing the monopoly media's bidding and being paid quite well for doing so should suck it up and remember what you get paid the big bucks for -- to screw over the American people and continue the charade called fair and balanced news." Heaven forbid all the big name newscasters should come forward, all at once, step down and help our country out by explaining the truth about those who hold the power to dictate what our news is, how it is manipulated, and who is behind it (what country) and why.

Dan Rather was doing us all a great service when he reported the Bush/National Guard story. I wish other newspersons were as diligent to report the truth.

When I first saw the juxtaposed pix, with trenchoat, and skimmed the headline, I THOUGHT it sai