That one sucked didn't it. It was way too obvious since so many people clearly knew who it was, and I could tell just by looking too that it would be easy, but had to do it regardless. Either that, or you're all getting the hang of the black and white images, and I'd better step it up a notch. So, this week DragonLady's World has brought down Moonbat Monitor as the champion.
Congratulations to DragonLady's World for guessing correctly that this week's moron is Mary Mapes.
Yup, Mapes is a dolt.
Foremost, we remember Mapes in the Rathergate, or Memogate, scandal as the terrible journalist who encouraged CBS News to use allegedly forged documents in a way that would re-open George W. Bush military service controversy and open new allegations on his rightful place as president. The documents she supplied to the show claimed to be from the personal files of the late Jerry Killian, but many bloggers wouldn't buy it.
They were too smart for her manipulations. These are the initial posts that drew the skepticism:
"TankerKC": "[The documents are] not in the style that we used when I came into the USAF...Can we get a copy of those memos?" (posted 19 minutes after the CBS broadcast began)
"Buckhead": "Howlin, every single one of these memos to file is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman. In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts...I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old. This should be pursued aggressively." (this repsonse came three hours and forty minutes later)
And, here is Little Green Football's animated .gif file displaying a relatively similar snippet of the document.
Clearly, the focus of the Internet forums, such as Free Republic and other blogs was on the anachronisms in the document's typography, and the finding had Mapes, Dan Rather, and CBS on their feet and ready to blame everyone, but themselves.
Moron Mapes claimed, and continues to claim, that she didn't believe the documents to be bogus and that she stands behind them and her decision. Instead, she blames CBS for giving her a short time frame to come up with a story for them.
Well, she came up with a story alright.
And, in an interview, Mapes states, "I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't".
Yes, I'm sure you don't THINK it was bad journalism because you KNOW it was bad journalism.
Click here for your Cartoon Interlude.
So one of the other two playing the blame game was Dan Rather, who initially supported Mapes and the documents, and claimed that Mapes was a legitimate journalist, but later resolved,
"if I knew then what I know now - I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question."
CBS claimed at first that the documents were authenticated by an examiner, but later reversed their statement and pinned the whole deal on Mapes, firing her for her idiocy.
Moron Mapes was also balled out by blogs and the media for calling Joe Lockhart, a senior official in the John Kerry campaign at the time, prior to airing the document publicly. This looked rather fishy to most, and it faulted her as having a political bias as a journalist: a big no-no in that circle.
I mean, really, what tool would think they would get away with all these moronic actions?
What's worse is that she claims she is a liberal, no wait, she's a liberal-conservative, no wait, she's an Independant, no wait, a Democrat.
Well, whatever she is, it's not sane in my opinion.
Even her estranged father expressed his displeasure for his daughter's behaviour, stating,
"I'm really ashamed of my daughter, what she's become. She went into journalism with an ax to grind, that is, to promote feminism -- and radical feminism, I might say -- and liberalism."
Now, Mapes is attempting to return to the spotlight with a new book, Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power, which blasts the blogosphere and maintains that no one has proven that the documents were false.
In some way, this reminds me of the guilty until proven innocent/innocent until proven guilty shtick. She requires us to prove to her that they were fake, rather than her proving to us that they were authentic.
There's a nice standard of journalism for you. Just publicise any cr*p you want and make us verify that it's false.
Her accountability is rather lacking, I would say. What a shining example of journalistic integrity. Moron.
As for her book, some excerpts have been displayed online to include the following:
“I had a real physical reaction as I read the angry online accounts. It was something between a panic attack, a heart attack, and a nervous breakdown. My palms were sweaty; I gulped and tried to breathe. . . . The little girl in me wanted to crouch and hide behind the door and cry my eyes out."
Yep, that sounds about right. That sounds like a guilty conscience to me. That's pretty much how I'd be reacting when found out for my lies.
Moron Mapes goes on mentioning bloggers' reactions to Rathergate:
"To these people, there was no such thing as unbiased mainstream reporting, certainly not when it came to criticism of the president, no matter how tepid. To them, there was Fox News and everything else -- and everything else was liberal and unfair."
Well, I don't know about bloggers thinking everything is liberal and unfair, but I do know that television media is extremely biased and that they typically preach to whatever mainstream society believes, many times, even sways the public in believing a certain way.
I mean, you know a reporter is swaying the reader reaction when they exhibit facial expressions that show disgust or happiness, or whatever slant they are leaning towards. Not only that, but some cheesy newcasts vocally express their opinions on matters when the media's role is supposed to be "just the facts".
And, I really can't speculate on who's getting paid by whom to influence the public reaction.
So, there you have it. Mary Mapes is a moron, and clearly many of you already knew that. Let's hope that next week's person won't be SUCH a moron... but they will be.
For a quite funny, witty, and interesting read on how Mary Mapes is related to a "stupid" conservative, a bird, and Socrates, visit Conservative Cat.
To Read Further:
Powerline
Day by Day cartoon
Hugh Hewitt
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