Mary Mapes Has Some Sympathy for Judy Miller

By: Kimberly Maul, The Book Standard After a year of involuntary exile from behind the TV cameras, Mary Mapes has emerged to tell her side of the story in the infamous airing of a 60 Minutes II news report now referred to in the media as Memogate. The producer of the segment, which was based on documents claiming that George W. Bush?s superiors in the National Guard had been ?unhappy with his performance,? Mapes was fired after an independent CBS panel deemed false the documents that she still says support the story.

Mapes, now promoting her book "Truth and Duty," released last week by St. Martin?s, told E&P's sister publication The Book Standard that ?no one has proved that the documents were not authentic?; that the charges made against her -- namely, that she used her own political bias to hurt the president -- are ?completely unfounded?; and that, not only does she have nothing to own up to, but it?s ?CBS [that] damaged CBS as a whole and I think they did it to help [parent company] Viacom.?

In a phone interview, Mapes described her life following the Sept. 4, 2004, news story: ?My home address was put on the Internet. They put a picture of me with a gun sight on my head. They came by and took pictures of my house. It just was terrifying and bullying and anti-American. I was being called horrible names by people who were afraid to sign their real name....

"I?ve gotten new documents out of the Texas Guard headquarters in Austin, Texas, that really show that the criticisms that were launched at my story a year ago were completely unfounded in terms of typeface, font style, proportional spacing, all that kind of boring, eye-glazing stuff that the conservative bloggers accused me of getting wrong. They were wrong."

But she also had a few words of sympathy for another controversial journalist who recently left her powerful, longtime employer: ex-New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Asked by The Book Standard about the Miller case, Mapes replied:

"I hate the way there?s so much dancing around the campfire about people when someone is hurt or loses their job. Obviously, I know what it?s like to be the person who?s hurt or lost their job. I think Judith Miller has done some terrific reporting. I don?t know all the details of her situation; it?s very complicated. My source story was much more straightforward. There have been people who?ve said that maybe this is the wrong case to do this with, and maybe it was. That?s a difficult one for me because I?m so sensitive to dancing on someone?s grave."

The full text of Mapes' interview with the Book Standard is available here.