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Sunday, December 11, 2005

Missing The Point

Jonathan Alter reviewed Mary Mapes' book a few weeks ago in The New York Times. I don't remember the review too well, but I do remember it was useless, since Alter seemed to leave open the question as to whether the documents in the Bush National Guard story were fraudulent or not. I'm sorry, but any serious discussion of Mapes' book has to start with the obvious conclusion the documents are fake. After that, sure, you can note even if they were real, the story they represented was pretty minor, and perhaps not worth going after. But to pretend there's still a debate about the forgeries wastes everyone's time.

A couple of time-wasters, predictably, write in this week to complain. One says:
Alter refuses to address the author's arguments, reiterating instead the shopworn objections of the Republican spin doctors. This serves no one, and only further obscures the truth.
The other writes (it's so good I'll quote the entire letter):
Jonathan Alter finds it "almost beside the point" that the documents that got Mary Mapes fired by CBS for being phony were probably genuine after all. Alter doesn't dispute the fact that a lynch mob led by right-wing bloggers and pundits went after Mapes armed with bogus evidence about the documents, but he figures, oh, well, even if she's innocent, let's string her up anyway.
Don't these dodos understand that far from being cruel, Alter's empty-headed openness on the issue is the greatest kindness possible to Mapes.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:13 PM, December 11, 2005

    You keep saying it's proved, but where the evidence. The research on it didn't conclude anything.

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  2. LAGuy2:04 PM, December 11, 2005

    The Boccardi Thornburgh report gives you all the evidence you need to make a conclusion. For that matter, check the archives at Little Green Footballs, or even The Washington Post, for fine summaries of the overwhelming evidence.

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  3. ColumbusGuy2:07 PM, December 11, 2005

    You're not kidding, are you? What "research" are you talking about? If you could specify, you might make the job of reporting easier.

    I'm guessing you don't like Powerline, that you'd rather listen to, say, Dan Rather, but go to powerlineblog.com, go to the search function and type "rather forgeries" and you'll get a host of links that link you to all sorts of articles, including statements from the entities and people involved. Much of it will be opinion, of course, but so also will much of it be fact, in addition to opinion from people you are likely to agree with. If that doesn't convince you, there isn't much else we can say on the topic here.

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