Let’s see if I’ve got this right…
You’re a producer at CBS News, and you get the drop on all the other networks coverage of Yasser Arafat’s death, and actually get a news bulletin on the air first. In the rush to air you cut off the last couple minutes of CSI:New York, which causes your network to apologize to it’s viewers. So what does CBS do to you for getting the story right, but the timing wrong? They fire you!
But if you’re CBS News producer Mary Mapes or anchorman Dan Rather you’re still employed at the network…
Previously At Wizbang: Rathergate coverage, and a look back at some of the big media outlets carptebagging on the work of Rathergate bloggers.
– Kevin….After everything we’ve been through this election year with that pillar of the jounalistic broadcasting community, CmyBS what exactly about this latest malaprop surprises you? … BTW there is a bit of good news here….and here…(maybe)
What’s wrong with those liberals at CBS, are they still a little touchy, lol?
And now we have a new classic in the category of “great oxymorons.” In addition to:
Jumbo shrimp…
Military intelligence…
Pretty ugly…
Microsoft Works…
Working vacation…
Rap music…
we can now add:
CBS News.
J.
My additions to Jay Tea’s list:
Hang Loose.
Sit Tight.
Moveon.org
I’d like to suggest as new oxymorons along similar lines (um, a contradiction):
Moveonout.org
Keepmovingaway.us
Obviously Rather and Mapes should be fired.
But this was pretty bad; this Arafat feting. I guess I assume she violated some internal protocols. I mean, if Chirac or Schroeder died, would they have broken in? I doubt it.
From the linked article, I think you’ve missed the point. Clearly, the producer took it upon his own initiative to ignore the clear standards provided by management. He was authorized to put the news into a crawl. But he did it his way. Obviously, the producers at CBS are out of control. This is a simple disciplinary measure intended to re-establish that the grownups are in charge. Mary Mapes is a complex situation as there is a real possibility of criminal liability for her and the network.
In some ways, I’m reminded of the exploding gas tanks on Dateline NBC. The producers and network news president were trying to blame the ignition on broken headlights, not pyrotechnics, until the grownups (Jack Welsh) at GE remined everyone that GE makes headlights. Only then did the truth come out and Stone & Jane had to publicly eat crow.
Re Memogate, I find myself wondering whether the person responsible for posting the phony memo on the website, thus exposing it to independent examination, still has a job with CBS News. I’m betting his was the first head to roll.
Kevin and Paul:
Weren’t there more threads relevant to Rathergate? Like that great Dr. Newcomer debunk of Prof. Hailey’s “study”?
McGehee – interesting thought! Wonder if that person might become a whistleblower. I’d also love to talk to the person at FOX to find out if they really uploaded theirs in Feb 02, or if it was a computer date/clock error.
I see USA Today still has their (6) fake docs up on their site. Anyone with a laptop can easily see the cut-and-paste job. Move your laptop screen back and forth and you’ll see the bluish/grey blocks around the text blocks, the signature blocks and the “dots” all over the pages. See here. Scroll down below the picture to: (Related items: Text of the four new memos – See the memos in PDF).
P.S. That’s funny – they were there up until yesterday. Anyway, Kevin and I both have pdfs of them.
Shell game? Now they’re there again!
I think firing this producer over this incident is a bit of overkill. And I agree with Kevin: Why are Rather and Mapes still there. Unless the producer in the Arafat story used a forged death certificate to prove Arafat was really dead, he shouldn’t have been canned. But Rather and Mapes hould have been canned weeks ago. BTW, what ever happened to CBS’s internal investigation?
So, what was the ending of CSI? I fell asleep during the repeat showing.
Julie, the butler did it. LOL
I hope rather gets fired and Fox News hires him so they can bitch slap him around.