A Stunning Revelation on Rather Gate

We all know what happened in Rather Gate. Dan Rather went on 60 minutes with documents that were fake. These documents were obviously not properly vetted prior to them being aired because they were fake and they wound up on the air. These documents purported to show that Bush used political influence to get into the guard to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. They also showed him to be lazy. Of course, none of it was true. Dan Rather wound up losing his job and so did Mary Mapes.

Now, Bernie Goldberg has just added a twist to the story. According to Goldberg, a source told him that on page 130 of CBS' own investigation there is startling information. The CBS investigation is available on their web site. On page 130, there is information that Mary Mapes was told by multiple sources that Bush stated that he vounteered to serve in Vietnam. Here's how Goldberg put it.

Mapes had information prior to the airing of the September 8 [2004] Segment that
President Bush, while in the TexANG [Texas Air National Guard] did volunteer for service in Vietnam but was turned down in favor of more experienced pilots. For example, a flight instructor who served in the TexANG with Lieutenant Bush advised Mapes in 1999 that Lieutenant Bush “did want to go to Vietnam but others went first.” Similarly, several others advised Mapes in 1999, and again in 2004 before September 8, that Lieutenant Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam but did not have enough flight hours to qualify.

It appears that he told people that he didn't want to serve in infantry but that he did want to fly in Vietnam. According to multiple sources that spoke with Mapes prior to the story being aired, they told her that Bush entered the National Guard in order to get enough hours to be able to fly in Vietnam.

It's important to note that it is not at all clear if Bush really was gung ho about serving in Vietnam. Bush ultimately didn't have enough hours to serve as a pilot in Vietnam, and, as Bernie Goldberg suggested, a cynic would say that Bush volunteered to serve knowing all this. What is clear was that Mapes was presented with evidence that he was. It is also clear that this information was never aired even though it's clearly relevant. In other words, the story was now clearly manipuated by those with an agenda, and relevent facts were held back purposely. Both Mapes and Rather cried that they made a mistake. It's now clear that Mapes at least didn't merely make a mistake. She willfully withheld information that would have made Bush more sympathetic. What is still not clear is whether or not Dan Rather knew about this. Mary Mapes has a lot to answer for, even more than she already has to answer for. There are now all sorts of new questions for Dan Rather.

This story was already one of the biggest pieces of journalistic corruption. This new revelation means the corruption was even worse than before.