September 20, 2004

Memogate: CBS Seeks A Fall-Guy

John Ellis says CBS News will make producer Mary Mapes the fall-guy for memogate. He has some words of advice for Ms. Mapes, and suggests that Dan Rather's statement today was the first salvo fired against her. If Ellis - a former Boston Globe columnist - is right about how things will play out as CBS plays the blame-shifting game, than Dan Rather - who personally vouched for the accuracy of the story - will now strive to make it appears as if he is a victim here, rather than a perp.

I said pretty much the same thing a few days ago...

CBS will try to save Rather's reputation by blaming the entire thing on underlings who produced the initial news broadcast despite knowing of the problems surrounding the memos.

Rather will be portrayed as just the newsreader of the story, not the journalist who produced it, and therefore a victim of the forgeries. But if so, inside CBS right now the soon-to-be sacrificial lambs are or ought to be gathering emails and internal documents that show just how deeply Rather was involved in the decision to air the documents and how informed he was about the doubts of their authenticity.

One can easily imagine a producer about to be tossed over the side by CBS to protect the network and Dan Rather, and how they might be trying to save their own journalistic reputation and career by bringing with them evidence of the provenance of the documents. The Kerry campaign? MoveOn.org? The Democratic National Committee? We may know more soon.