Attention All Second Grade Parents in San Pablo!


Correspondent SK emails in with a winner:

Dear Mr. Ellis,

Our local paper carries today a story of Lech Walesa visiting the Bay Area. It ends with a lovely bit --- I render for your personal enjoyment. "Peaches Torassa, 50, who teaches second-graders in San Pablo, remembered hearing of Walesa during the 1970's.

'He put his life on the line,' said Torassa .... 'To me it's like meeting Fidel Castro.'"

It really made my morning oatmeal.

Baba Wawa Woves Wather

"You have the support of all of us here," said Ms. Walters to Mr. Rather at a party honoring her 25 years at the ABC News program 20/20. Page Six fills in the rest. Mr. Heyward appears to be resisting the Krazy Glue strategy.

The Krazy Glue Strategy

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Rather said that on learning that Ms. Mapes had obtained the documents, he called Mr. Heyward.

"This is not verbatim," Mr. Rather recalled. "But I said: 'Andrew, if true, it's breakthrough stuff. But I need to do something unusual. It may even be unique. I have to ask you to oversee, in a hands-on way, the handling of this story, because this is potentially the kind of thing that will cause great controversy.'

"He got it. He immediately agreed.'' -- from today's New York Times

Let's summarize Mr. Rather's position: if I go down, (CBS News President Andrew) Heyward goes down with me. Krazy-glued at the hip. as it were. This must have been unwelcome news at the Heyward household this morning; a hostage-taking over Cheerios.

The weird thing about this story is what might be called the "everyone knows factor." Everyone knew that the documents were not, to use CBS's terminology, "authentic." Everyone knew that the position of CBS News was therefore untenable. And now everyone knows that the person most responsible for this debacle is none other than Dan Rather himself. He pushed the story onto the air. He defended it long after it was revealed to be indefensible. He hijacked a great news organization and drove it off a cliff.

Mapes and Howard will be terminated soon -- and for good reason -- but they are minor players. CBS can't get healthy until Rather is gone. He's both an embarrassment and a disgrace.

Dear Mary Mapes


The red dot is now on your head. From Howard Kurtz's article this morning (the suits always use Howie to get their messages across):

The most vulnerable employee at CBS would seem to be Rather's producer, Mary Mapes, who not only obtained the discredited documents but also put her source, former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, in touch with Joe Lockhart, senior adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign.

Note the linkage.

P.S.: Just in case you didn't get the message, the suits were kind enough to leave one on your mobile. You can read the text of that message here.

P.P.S. And they sent you an e-mail via Bill Carter, their water-boy at The New York Times. It reads, in part:

Mr. Rather and CBS executives said Mr. Bush's Guard records had been intensely important to (Mapes), a subject she had been chasing with Mr. Rather off and on for five years.

Several people at the news division, who insisted on anonymity because they had been told not to talk to reporters, said one important line of inquiry in the internal inquiry would be whether Ms. Mapes's zeal clouded her judgment.

Some colleagues and associates questioned whether her politics could have interfered.

P.P.P.S.: One more thing. Today is "tone shift day," the day when the tone of voice of your CBS colleagues (especially your "superiors") changes dramatically. There's a distinct chill in the air, so to speak. Because today is the day that they begin in earnest to try to ruin the rest of your life.

Side-Winding

Now that the entire world knows that the infamous Killian memos are, in fact, forgeries, it's worth noting that one man -- Dan Rather -- still believes that the documents are authentic. I know I say this over and over again, but really: You can't make this stuff up. Let's go to the text of Dan's crazed interview with the Chicago Tribune:

"Do I think they're forged? No," Rather said. "But it's not good enough to use the documents on the air if we can't vouch for them, and we can't vouch for them."

Rather said he had no regrets for his defense of the story.

"I believed in it," he said. "I wouldn't have put it on the air if I hadn't of believed in it. And what kind of reporter would I be if I put something on the air in which I believed, and as soon as it's attacked and under pressure, you run, you fold, you fade, you side-wind? That's not the kind of person I am, and it's not the kind of reporter I am."

Memo to the Suits: Get this guy in a straitjacket asap. He's killing you.

Memo to Roger Simon: Many thanks.

CBS Public Relations

How much does CBS miss having the services of John Scanlon? A lot, judging from the events of the last 14 days. The fact that they don't have Scanlon on their team explains, to some degree, their inability to mount a coherent response to this brand-shattering scandal.

Dear Josh

If you think your situation differs from that of Mary Mapes, think again:

In a further sign of the turmoil at CBS, some staff members at the original Sunday "60 Minutes" say their program has been unfairly blemished by the Wednesday spin-off, which began in 1999 as "60 Minutes II."

"I think it is safe to say that the overwhelming feeling among correspondents and producers on the Sunday program is that we would not have made the same mistakes," correspondent Steve Kroft said. He added: "It's hard to know at this point exactly what went wrong, because the Wednesday show is an entirely separate broadcast with entirely different people, and brand-new management. But something clearly went wrong with the process."

Josh Howard, who runs "60 Minutes" Wednesday, said producer Mapes had not told him that Burkett was the source and that this was "probably one of many things I would do differently next time." As for Burkett's charge that Mapes, who has declined all interview requests, pushed him too hard, Howard said: "If anything, we didn't push hard enough."

Unimpeachable Source


That's what CBS News Anchor Dan Rather called Bill Burkett. Read this story and name me one editor in the country who would have the slightest confidence in anything Mr. Burkett had to say.

Second Salvo

Dear Mary Mapes --

Following is the last paragraph of an AP story that is moving on the wire:

(Kerry "Message Maven" Joel) Lockhart said Mapes asked him the weekend before the story broke to call Burkett. "She basically said there's a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you," Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records "that might move the story forward. She didn't tell me what they said."

The suits move fast. More is on the way.

All Best -- Ellisblog

A Blue Ribbon Panel

CBS News and CBS management are commissioning an independent review of the process by which the report was prepared and broadcast to help determine what actions need to be taken. The names of the people conducting the review will be announced shortly, and their findings will be made public. -- from an internal e-mail to CBS News employees from Andrew Heyward, CBS News President.

Dear Mary Mapes --

Call your lawyer immediately. DO NOT, under any circumstances, allow CBS counsel to represent your interests.

All Best -- Ellisblog