Rereporting Mapes

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Comments are a wonderful thing and truly one of the best features of blogging. I say that because a particular comment on the CBS News "Public Eye" blog is worth highlighting here at NewsBusters now that axed CBS News producer Mary Mapes has come under increasing fire from her former employer. This raises a question for PE commenter "Neuro-con." (Unfortunately, CBS's software does not allow direct linking to a comment so you'll have to search or scroll a bit.)

Mapes' book was newsworthy, in that it confirmed that she has an extremely distorted notion of truth. CBS is implicated in maintaining such an individual on the payroll for 15 years.

CBS has an ethical obligation to (at least) make public a list of her previous pieces for 60 Minutes, along with transcripts.

The NY Times and The New Republic, when confronted with a pathological liar on the payroll, went back and re-reported every single one of their stories. In both cases, a pattern of behavior was revealed.

Vaughn [Ververs, PE's editor], please answer this question: Why does CBS hold itself to a much lower standard than the NYTimes or The New Republic?

Is this really the reason CBS spent so much time on an "independent commission" that shifted the bulk of the blame to Mapes and a few others instead of the entire organization that hired and lauded her militant left-wing bias?