Vanity Fair Excerpts Mary Mapes’ New Book Highlighting Rathergate

Mary Mapes, the former CBS News producer who became famous for her involvement in a “60 Minutes II” segment last year concerning President Bush’s involvement in the Air National Guard, had an excerpt of her upcoming book, “Truth and Duty,” printed in the December issue of Vanity Fair.

An Editor and Publisher article published last evening stated the following:

“Mapes writes that she had felt the Guard segment was a big success after airing on Sept. 8, 2004, until the following morning at 11 a.m. when she learned that a bunch of ‘far-right’ Web sites were claiming that documents were forged.

"That same day about 3 p.m. she recalls staring at the Drudge Report and seeing a big picture of Rather at the top and a headline saying that he was ‘shaken’ and hiding in his office. The phone rang and it was Rather, telling her he'd just heard about the Drudge deadline and he wanted to assure her that he was not 'shaken' and was not hiding out.

"He signed off with a favorite expression of his: ‘FEA’ for ‘---- them all.’"

According to E&P, Mapes stated in her new book that “the attack on the ‘60 Minutes’ piece was just part of the Bushites ‘sliming’ of those who raised questions about the president."

She then compared her depiction as a liberal to McCarthyism while chastising her former employer for not standing up to similar tactics being employed today: “‘Suspected liberals had become the new 'Communists...What in the world would Edward R. Murrow think of his network now?”"

According to the Associated Press, Mapes claimed in her book that CBS’s owner, Viacom, sold her out for financial reasons:

“Mapes contended that CBS and Viacom, which actively lobby in Washington on media ownership and decency standards, did not want an angry Bush administration making vindictive decisions that would cost them money. Mapes contended that CBS and Viacom, which actively lobby in Washington on media ownership and decency standards, did not want an angry Bush administration making vindictive decisions that would cost them money.”

“‘Now (Viacom executives) could present themselves to the Bush administration as victims of irresponsible, out-of-control journalists, not as an operation that was actually doing some tough reporting,’ she wrote.”