CBS Offers Withering
Assessment of the Rathergate Movie ‘Truth’
by John Sexton 8 Oct 2015
CBS has offered a
harsh assessment of the film “Truth” which stars Robert
Redford and Cate Blanchett in a supposedly accurate account of the Dan Rather scandal. The film is based on the
book by disgraced CBS News producer Mary
Mapes.
CBS does not appear inclined to participate in Mapes’s
creative retelling of her own downfall. A spokesperson for CBS gave Variety
the following statement on the veracity
of the film:
It’s astounding how little truth there is in “Truth.” There
are, in fact, too many distortions, evasions and baseless conspiracy theories
to enumerate them all. The film tries to turn gross errors of journalism
and judgment into acts of heroism and martyrdom. That’s a disservice not just
to the public but to journalists across the world who go out every day and do
everything within their power, sometimes at great risk to themselves, to get
the story right.
One of the “conspiracy theories” CBS mentions may be a
central contention of the film about why CBS pulled the story, demoted Rather,
and fired Mapes. The Hollywood Reporter suggested
the film claims, “Rather and Mapes were fired to appease the Bush
White House and to protect the CBS financial bottom line.”
As Breitbart News noted last month,
Dan Rather appeared at the Toronto Film Festival premiere of the film and
endorsed its accuracy saying, “We reported a true story. And there has never
been any doubt the story was true.”
That was not the conclusion of an investigation launched by
CBS after the story collapsed. The investigation identified,
“10 serious defects” in the reporting including, “failure to obtain clear
authentication of the documents or to investigate the controversial background
of the source of the purported documents.” The documents themselves were
determined to be fraudulent and the supposed source, a woman named Lucy
Ramirez, was never identified. She appears to be a fiction.
Dan
Rather
Dan
Rather was an anchor for the CBS
News, a trustee at the Paley Center
for Media, and is an advisory board member for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Note: Walter L. Cronkite
was an honorary chairman for the Committee
to Protect Journalists, and an anchorman for the CBS News.
CBS
News is a subsidiary of CBS.
William
S. Paley was the chairman for CBS,
the founder of the Paley Center for
Media, and a friend of Prescott S.
Bush.
Prescott
S. Bush was a friend of William S.
Paley, a director at CBS, and George H.W. Bush’s father.
Sundance Channel
is a partner with CBS.
Robert
Redford is a partner with the Sundance
Channel, the founder & president for the Sundance Institute, a trustee at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and an honorary board for Green Cross International.
Green Cross International
Ted Turner, (USA) is an honorary board for Green Cross International.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Sundance Institute, and the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Leonardo DiCaprio
is a trustee at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, and was a board member for Global Green USA.
Global Green USA
is a US affiliate of Green Cross
International.
Mikhail Gorbachev
is the founder of Green Cross International,
an advisory board member for the Global
Security Institute, was the general secretary for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
David A. Hamburg
is an advisory board member for the Global
Security Institute, and the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Norman Pearlstine
is a trustee for the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and a director at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Newton
N. Minow is an honorary trustee at the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and was a director
for CBS.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and his attorney is Robert B.
Barnett.
Robert B. Barnett
is Barack Obama’s attorney, and
married to Rita Braver.
Rita
Braver is married to Robert B.
Barnett, and a senior correspondent for the CBS News.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
William
M. Daley is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, a contributor for the CBS
News, and was the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.
CBS
News is a subsidiary of CBS.
Dan
Rather was an anchor for the CBS
News, a trustee at the Paley Center
for Media, and is an advisory board member for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Sundance Channel
is a partner with CBS.
Robert
Redford is a partner with the Sundance
Channel, the founder & president for the Sundance Institute, a trustee at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and an honorary board for Green Cross International.
William
S. Paley was the chairman for CBS,
a friend of Prescott S. Bush, and the
founder of the Paley Center for Media.
Jeff
Zucker was a trustee at the Paley
Center for Media, and the president & CEO for NBCUniversal.
NBCUniversal
is a partner with the Sundance Channel.
Sundance Channel
is a partner with CBS.
Robert
Redford is a partner with the Sundance
Channel, the founder & president for the Sundance Institute, a trustee at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and an honorary board for Green Cross International.
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