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"Rathergate" followup

Dan Rather's speaking out about his firing over the George Bush/National Guard memo. He's convinced that the memo was real, and that Bush was really getting special treatment during his National Guard days (if not AWOL). In case you forgot, anecdotal and other evidence suggesting that Bush had simply ditched his National Guard service and got away with it was widely discussed through his first term and migh've been a threat to his 2004 campaign. At the time of the dust-up over the memo,
Some thought that the memo, if a provable fake, might be Karl Rove's way of putting the story to rest: leak a bogus memo that could successfully be disputed, and by making a convincing argument that the memo was a fake, imply that the story's not true. That might've been a stretch (Occam's Razor etc.), and Rather's still convinced that the memo was genuine.

"I've learned a good deal since that time," said Rather. "It's reported that Sumner Redstone [president of Viacom] ... was described as being enraged that the news division, this story, had cost Viacom and CBS in Washington, and he wanted Dan Rather and everybody connected with it out."

"They sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News," he said.

Rather said he still believes the 60 Minutes report was correct. "[CBS] sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain," he stated, "and in so doing I think they undermined a lot at CBS News."

"Nobody to this day has shown that these documents were fraudulent," continued Rather, referring to the disputed memos featured in the 60 Minutes story. "Nobody has proved that they were fraudulent, much less a forgery. ... The truth of this story stands up to this day." Rather added that he believed somebody with subpoena power could get to the bottom of the matter pretty quickly.

jon posted this at 9:50 AM
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