http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/quotes
IMDb
Die Hard (1988)
Quotes
Hans Gruber: [Reading what McClane wrote on the dead terrorist's shirt] "Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=36334
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Statement on the 44th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
January 30, 1988
This 44th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights takes place at a critical time, when conditions for freedom have seldom been more favorable. The spread of democracy and free elections in Latin America and Asia and the desire for free markets and human rights hold out a beacon for oppressed peoples throughout the world. A witness to mankind's desire for liberty and to the strength of soul possessed by prisoners of conscience is our chief of delegation, Armando Valladares, who suffered for more than two decades in Cuban prisons as a political prisoner. His character and sense of purpose will serve us well in our diplomacy in the Commission.
Many issues face this session. The United Nations has repeatedly affirmed the right of self-determination for the Afghan and Cambodian peoples and deplored overwhelming human rights violations committed by their respective Soviet and Vietnamese invaders. The U.N. also has concerned itself with the serious human rights situation in Iran, whose government continues to suppress fundamental freedoms and persecute members of the minority Baha'i faith. The Commission has furthermore concerned itself with the human rights problems of Chile. We intend to work closely with cooperative delegations to reach constructive and helpful resolutions on such issues as the practice of apartheid by the South African Government.
Yet much remains to be done. One of the principal human rights violators in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba, has escaped attention for many years, but no more. The United States sponsored a resolution last year asking that violations in Cuba be placed on the UNHBC agenda, and we will do so again this year. Religious intolerance, particularly in the Soviet Union, continues to deprive millions of the freedom to worship as they choose. The freedom to emigrate, proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, continues to be denied to large numbers of people, including Soviet Jews, by Communist regimes. In spite of our best efforts, the practice of torture by other governments continues. The abuse of psychiatry to repress political dissidents in the U.S.S.R. is especially repugnant. We will look for deeds, not words, to satisfy world opinion that the U.S.S.R. has ended this practice.
We must not forget other victims of Long-standing human rights abuses: Among them are the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; the Turkish minority in Bulgaria; the Paraguayans; and the peoples of Ethiopia, North Korea, Vietnam, and Nicaragua, where governmental repression is a way of life.
As the trend toward democracy throughout the world continues to gain momentum, we welcome the efforts of the United Nations to accelerate that trend. We pledge our full participation in the struggle for respect for all human rights.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/quotes
IMDb
Die Hard (1988)
Quotes
Hans Gruber: [Looking puzzled] I must have missed 60 Minutes. What are you saying?
From 1/30/1988 ( Ronald Reagan - Radio Address to the Nation on Aid to the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance ) to 4/21/1988 ( from my official United States Navy documents as Kerry Burgess: "Qualified M-14 Rifle" ) is 82 days
From 4/21/1988 ( from my official United States Navy documents as Kerry Burgess: "Qualified M-14 Rifle" ) to 7/12/1988 is 82 days
From 12/25/1971 ( George Walker Bush the purveyor of illegal drugs strictly for his personal profit including the trafficking of massive amounts of cocaine into the United States confined to federal prison in Mexico for illegally smuggling narcotics in Mexico ) To 7/12/1988 is 6044 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/21/1982 ( Ronald Reagan - Executive Order 12363—The Foreign Service of the United States ) is 6044 days
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/releaseinfo
IMDb
Die Hard (1988)
Release Info
USA 12 July 1988 (Westwood, California) (premiere)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/fullcredits
IMDb
Die Hard (1988)
Full Cast & Crew
Bruce Willis ... John McClane
Die Hard (1988)
John McClane: (to Ellis) You missed some.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/choice2000/etc/transcript.html
PBS
transcript
The Choice 2000
PETER BOYER: George W. made his way at Andover, but not in the fashion that Senator Prescott Bush or George Herbert Walker Bush might have imagined. He did not become senior class president or a star baseball player like his father, but he did discover his own persona: a cheerleader with an antic streak.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush073099.htm
By George Lardner Jr. and Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 30, 1999; Page A1
That, of course, didn't save Bush from dry holes, and the constant search for new investors.
In 1982, he decided to raise more money by going public. But first, in January 1982, he got a generous $1 million transfusion from Philip A. Uzielli, a New York investor who paid that much for 10 percent of Arbusto's far less valuable stock.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072899.htm
Wasington Post
At Height of Vietnam, Bush Picks Guard
By George Lardner Jr. and Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 28, 1999; Page A1
Fourth of seven articles
Two weeks before he was to graduate from Yale, George Walker Bush stepped into the offices of the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington Field outside Houston and announced that he wanted to sign up for pilot training.
It was May 27, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Bush was 12 days away from losing his student deferment from the draft at a time when Americans were dying in combat at the rate of 350 a week. The unit Bush wanted to join offered him the chance to fulfill his military commitment at a base in Texas. It was seen as an escape route from Vietnam by many men his age, and usually had a long waiting list.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush073099.htm
washingtonpost.com
Bush Name Helps Fuel Oil Dealings
By George Lardner Jr. and Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 30, 1999; Page A1
Bush's public drilling partnership made its debut in April 1982 under the name of Arbusto, but the "Bust" label the company had taken on may have hampered it. In what he has described as a "marketing" move, the vice president's son changed the name to Bush Exploration and in June issued a new prospectus.
The offering was still a flop. Bush sought to raise $6 million but he drummed up just $1,141,000, less than he'd raised privately in each of the previous two years. He said oil prices had been sliding a bit and drilling funds were losing their appeal. Tax deductions weren't as generous. (In 1985, the investors who did get in were offered 10 cents on the dollar to bail out.)
By 1984, the outlook was bleak. "We didn't find much oil and gas," said Michael Conaway, Bush's chief financial officer. "We weren't raising any money."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=36323
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Radio Address to the Nation on Aid to the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance
January 30, 1988
My fellow Americans:
One of the great stories of this decade, a story that goes too often unremarked, involves the movement toward democracy in this, our own Western Hemisphere. Less than 50 percent of the people of Latin America lived in democracies when our administration took office. Today that percentage is more than 90. In the words of President Sarney of Brazil: "Latin America's extraordinary effort to create a democratic order is the most stunning and moving political fact of recent years."
Yet in the face of this broad and sweeping movement toward human freedom, one country has gone in the opposite direction, away from freedom and toward oppression. That country is Nicaragua. Since the Communist Sandinista regime of Nicaragua took power in 1979, its political opposition has been subjected to constant harassment. Freedom of the press was replaced by state censorship. Communist control of the economy has produced hyperinflation and a standard of living that is now nothing short of desperate. Perhaps the most telling fact of all is this: Some 250,000 Nicaraguans, over 10 percent of the entire population, have fled the country.
It would be one thing if Nicaragua, bad as it is, were self-contained. Yet the actual case is much worse. For the Communist regime has placed Nicaragua within the Soviet orbit, embarked upon a massive military buildup, and already begun to send arms and guerrillas into neighboring countries. First, El Salvador, then Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica—the Communist Sandinistas have sought to extend violence throughout all of Central America. It could be only a matter of time before serious unrest and instability reached Mexico. Were that to happen, the decade of the nineties could open with hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming toward our own southern borders.
Yet people in Central America have themselves moved to prevent this threat from becoming a reality. First among these are the Nicaraguan freedom fighters. These brave men and women have given up ordinary life to endure the hardship of living in the countryside—virtually always on the move—to fight for freedom in their own country. There was a time when the freedom fighters, with few supplies, little medical support, and dwindling ammunition, were forced to retreat. But in recent months, in large measure because we in the United States have stood with them, the freedom fighters have begun to win major victories, placing intense pressure upon the Communist Sandinista regime to reform.
Outside Communist Nicaragua, the democratic leaders of neighboring Central American countries have worked together to develop a peace plan for the region. Among its provisions, the peace plan calls for all the countries of Central America, including Nicaragua, to respect civil liberties, including freedom of the press and freedom to hold elections.
The Communist regime in Nicaragua-which, as I've said, is under intense pressure from the freedom fighters—has agreed to participate in the regional peace process. So far, the measures the Communists have taken have been extremely limited—the release of a small number of political prisoners, for example, and the lifting of censorship in a very few eases. Yet there is hope that, with the freedom fighters keeping up the pressure, the Communists will observe still further provisions of the peace plan, permitting Nicaragua at least to inch toward the conditions of genuine democracy.
The United States has made every effort to promote a negotiated solution. Since 1981 we have met with the Sandinistas ourselves—bilaterally, multilaterally, and in other diplomatic settings. Four special United States envoys have traveled to the region on at least 40 occasions. Yet it remains vital for us to help the freedom fighters keep the Communist Sandinistas under pressure.
Next week Congress will vote on my request for additional aid for the Nicaraguan resistance. Ninety percent of the $36 million package is for nonlethal support, such as food, clothing, medicine, and the means to deliver those items. Only $3.6 million is for ammunition, and its delivery would be suspended for at least a month to determine whether progress is being made toward a cease-fire. I'm hopeful that will occur, and the ammunition will not be required.
However, if the Sandinistas fail to move forward on the path of peace and democracy, then I will certify to Congress that these supplies must be released. I will make that decision only after the most careful and thorough consultation with Congress and the four Central American democratic Presidents. Those brave freedom fighters cannot be left unarmed against Communist tyranny.
Until next week, thanks for listening, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair
Iran–Contra affair
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Iran–Contra affair, also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. They hoped, thereby, to fund the Contras in Nicaragua while at the same time negotiating the release of several U.S. hostages. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.
The scandal began as an operation to free seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a paramilitary group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of the hostages. Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista fighters, known as Contras, against the socialist government of Nicaragua.
While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, the evidence is disputed as to whether he authorized the diversion of the money raised by the arms sales to the Contras.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking
CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A number of writers have alleged that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in cocaine trafficking during the 1980s. These claims have led to investigations by the United States government, including hearings and reports by the United States House of Representatives, Senate, Department of Justice, and the CIA's Office of the Inspector General. The subject remains controversial.
From 8/18/1973 ( The Killian Document ) To 1/10/2005 is 11468 days
11468 = 5734 + 5734
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 7/15/1981 ( the US FDA announces approval of aspartame ) is 5734 days
From 12/24/1912 ( Merck files for German patent 274,350 for MDMA ) To 5/12/1991 ( I was the winning race driver at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix as the unpublished Formual One driver and the financial partner of McLaren Honda and the legitmate agent of Interpol ) is 28628 days
28628 = 14314 + 14314
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/10/2005 is 14314 days
From 11/9/1951 ( Lou Ferrigno ) To 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 ) is 14314 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/10/2005 is 14314 days
From 11/9/1951 ( Lou Ferrigno ) To 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) is 14314 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/10/2005 is 14314 days
[ See also: http://hvom.blogspot.com/2016/09/aspartame.html ]
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/10/wbr.01.html
CNN
TRANSCRIPTS
CNN WOLF BLITZER REPORTS
Aired January 10, 2005 - 17:00 ET
In other news, it was a stunning report with huge implications for the presidential campaign, but perhaps even more shocking than the CBS story questioning President Bush's National Guard service, there had been many of those stories before, was the network's turnaround when it admitted it could no longer vouch for its facts. Now the other shoe has dropped and several top CBS news executives are out of a job. CNN's Chris Huntington joins us now live from New York with more -- Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this was a report that was three months in the making. A lengthy independent review of just exactly what happened at CBS News with that September 8 broadcast. The lengthy review offers an unflattering assessment of the breakdown of journalistic standards at CBS News.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): In early September, veteran CBS News producer Mary Mapes thought she had the story of the presidential election. That George W. Bush had shirked his duties in the Texas Air National Guard and that four letters reportedly written by Bush's commanding officer at the time proved it.
DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: Tonight we have new documents and new information on the president's military service.
HUNTINGTON: In fact, all that Mapes had were four ragged photo copies that neither she nor her colleagues at "60 Minutes Wednesday" nor several document specialists could authenticate at the time. Now a 224-page report prepared by former U.S. attorney general Richard Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi, the former CEO of the Associated Press finds, quote, "considerable and fundamental deficiencies relating to the reporting and production of the September 8 segment." That, quote, "myopic zeal to break the story ahead of other news organizations resulted in a rush to air that overwhelmed the proper application of CBS News standards."
ALEX JONES, SHORENSTEIN CENTER: I don't think there's any more destructive element in television news now than the competition to be first. This is a story about newspeople who fell in love with a story, and falling in love is a kind of madness. And that afflicts people in the news business just like it afflicts all of us sometimes.
HUNTINGTON: Thornburgh and Boccardi present a revealing look at the chaotic pressure cooker at "60 Minutes Wednesday" trying to push through a controversial story in just a few days including Mapes and an associate producer scrambling over Labor Day weekend to find document experts just days before the report would go to air. Mapes is described in the report as dismissing objections raised by those experts and then convincing CBS News executives that the documents had been validate. Dan Rather is described as out of the loop, covering Hurricane Frances in Florida. But Rather did tell CBS News president Andrew Heyward that, quote, "this story could be radioactive" and that Heyward should have it checked out thoroughly. Heyward then e-mailed Betsy West the executive overseeing "60 Minutes," "we're going to have to defend every syllable on this one." Betsy West as well as two other executives at "60 Minutes Wednesday" have lost their jobs all because a veteran producer thought she had a scoop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The vetting process didn't work, that people trusted the word of one person without checking the documents or the experts that produced them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTINGTON: Now, Moonves also said that CBS will immediately adopt one of the chief recommendations of the Thornburgh/Boccardi report and that is a new executive position to oversee reporting standards. By the way, Wolf, the Thornburgh/Boccardi report itself could not authenticate the documents. So we still don't know if those documents were real or forged.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Chris Huntington with a solid report from New York. Thanks very much. We'll have reaction to the controversial shake-up at CBS News and the allegations that the oustings are politically motivated. I'll speak with former CBS correspondent and author Bernard Goldberg. That's coming up next.
Increased violence in Iraq and now talk of drastic measures. Could U.S.-trained forces soon operate as secret death squads?
Fair and free. Palestinians elect a new leader and renew hope for peace in the Middle East. The former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, is in the region. My interview with him, that's coming up as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. Our coverage of the CBS News story continues now. I'm joined from our Miami bureau by Bernard Goldberg, a former CBS correspondent and the author of the best selling book "Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How The Media Distort the News." Bernie, thanks very much for joining us. A lot of our viewers are interested. First of all, was this a thorough report? Are you satisfied with the bottom line conclusions of this report?
BERNARD GOLDBERG, FMR. CBS CORRESPONDENT: Well, to state the obvious, they don't care whether I'm satisfied or not. But look, I think after three months they put a lot of work into it and deserve some credit, but it's disingenuous, I think, Wolf, to simply conclude that they made a mistake without going into some detail about how they made the mistake beyond this zeal to be first. I don't think this story would have ever seen the light of day if their source, instead of being a Bush -- someone who disliked President Bush, someone with a vendetta against President Bush, was, let's say, a conservative Republican who had a vendetta against John Kerry. If this report were about not George Bush being a slacker during the Vietnam War but about John Kerry being a slacker during the Vietnam War, they would have been much more careful. Yes, they made a mistake. Dan Rather had no idea that these documents were phony, but they made a mistake, in my view, anyway, because, a, they wanted the story to be true, and because it fit their own preconceived notions about George Bush.
BLITZER: Basically, though, what I can tell from reading the document is they had such high regard for this Mary Mapes, the senior producer who was involved in putting it together, she had been a star at "60 Minutes" for so many years.
GOLDBERG: Right.
BLITZER: They simply assumed she knew what she was doing.
GOLDBERG: Yes, I have some inside information on this because I'm still a reporter and I still talk to people on the inside. Mary Mapes is the real villain in all of this. I almost feel sorry for my old friend Dan Rather. Mary Mapes really misled a whole bunch of people, but, you know, the report concluded that there was no evidence of bias. And you know, in the reporting. And I agree, there was no evidence of bias. I'm not sure what evidence they thought they'd find. Did they think there was going to be a memo that said, let's stick to it George W. Bush? Of course there was no evidence. But I'm saying this...
BLITZER: Let me read, Bernie, I'll interrupt for a second, from the commission, the independent review panel's findings on this issue. "The panel does not find a bias to accuse those who investigated, produced, vetted or aired the segment of having a political bias. The panel does note, however, that on such a politically charged story coming in the midst of a presidential campaign in which military service records had become an issue, there was a need for meticulous care to avoid any suggestion of an agenda at work."
GOLDBERG: And I'm going a step further. I'm saying there was an agenda at work. I'm not saying that Dan Rather went into this saying, I'm going to get George Bush. It's never -- that is not the nature of bias in the news. It never, ever happens that way. But I am saying that he wanted this story to be true, and Mary Mapes sure wanted that story to be true. And did he depend too much on her? Yes, that's obvious. But if he didn't want this story to be true, if it didn't fit the culture of CBS' preconceived notions about liberals and conservatives and Democrats and Republicans, it would have never seen the light of day and we would never be talking about it.
BLITZER: Their defenders say they wanted it to be true, they fell in love with the story, not because of a bias or a political agenda, but because they thought it was a great story, and as journalists, you and I know, we love great stories.
GOLDBERG: Yes, and I think when you're working with investigative producers -- and it's the scariest thing in the world -- I've worked with them -- when they fall in love with the story, head for the hills. Because you may have big, big problems, as we see here. But what I'm saying is, they didn't simply fall in love with a great story. They would have never -- I know these people, I know these people. And even more than knowing these people, I know the culture at CBS News. They would have never fallen in love with a story that made the other side look as bad as they made George Bush. They just wouldn't have.
BLITZER: All right, let's talk about Dan Rather for a moment. Leslie Moonves and his statement released in conjunction with the report says this: "Dan Rather has already apologized for the segment and taken personal responsibility for his part in the broadcast. He voluntarily moved to set a date to step down from 'The CBS Evening News' anchor chair in March of 2005, which will give him more time to concentrate on his reporting for CBS News. After examining the report and thinking about its implications, we believe any further action would not be appropriate."
Is that appropriate for Leslie Moonves to have reached that conclusion?
GOLDBERG: Yeah, he's the boss. Whatever he decides, in a sense, is appropriate. Dan Rather's legacy is going to be two-fold, I think. One is that he's a reporter with tremendous courage, physical courage, especially. He's covered every major story since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and he was the first reporter on that story. And he deserves tremendous credit for all of that. But the other part of the legacy that I'm sure the report doesn't go into, because it's not the purview of the report, is that Dan Rather is unwilling and maybe even incapable of taking serious criticism seriously. His first reaction is to circle the wagons, and that isn't healthy for anybody, certainly not for a journalist. The first thing he did in this story is to say this was the work -- to people who were criticizing him -- this is the work of partisan political forces. Well, you know what? You know who the partisan political forces were? His source, his producer and maybe Dan Rather himself.
BLITZER: Dan Rather is also listed as managing editor of "The CBS Evening News," not just a reader, a news reader, if you will.
GOLDBERG: Right.
BLITZER: He is quoted in the report as having said to CBS News President Andrew Heyward, this is radioactive, make sure this is all right. I'm busy, I've got a million things going on, including the hurricanes in Florida. Andrew Heyward, he's not being fired, he's allowed to continue. Do you accept that?
GOLDBERG: Again, it doesn't matter if I accept it. But I read that quote of Dan Rather's when he made it in "The New York Times," and I thought Dan Rather was brilliant by doing that, because now he's linked himself to Andrew Heyward.
I will say this, I like Andrew Heyward a lot. There was a time when he was, if anybody cares, my best friend. But if you think Ronald Reagan is the teflon president, you have never met Andrew Heyward. There is no -- I would have bet the ranch that he wasn't going to go down on this thing.
Now, whether or not three months from now, six months from now Andrew Heyward announces that he wants to pursue other challenges and all that, that may be, but you know, there were a number of people in the meetings on this story, and Andrew Heyward was one of them. So Andrew Heyward -- I don't think that the captain of the ship, because he's the president of CBS News, ipso facto, he ought to be punished for this. But he was involved at every level of this story. Maybe not every single, you know, little thing, but he was involved in all the meetings that Dan Rather went to, that Heyward went to, that Betsy West went to and that Mary Mapes went to and that Josh Howard and Mary Murphy, the two producers, went to.
And you know, I just think it is going to be awfully difficult for Dan Rather and Andrew Heyward to go into work when all these other people have lost their jobs. I mean, I know some of these people. And they're very good and they're very decent. They've lost their jobs, but Rather, the reporter on the story, hasn't lost his job. He's still making a seven-figure salary. And Andrew Heyward hasn't lost his. I'm not saying he should have. But if I'm Andrew Heyward I'm feeling mighty funny about this, you know, this survivor -- I'd have survivor guilt, let's put it that way.
BLITZER: Bernard Goldberg, we'll leave it right there. Continue this conversation on another occasion. Thanks very much for joining us.
GOLDBERG: Thanks, Wolf.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11
Los Angeles Times
Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs
January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers
NEW YORK — CBS News dismissed four staffers and appointed a new standards executive Monday after an independent panel issued an exhaustive and highly critical report on how questionable documents -- and a frenzied rush to trump competitors -- led the network to air a high-stakes story about President Bush's military service that turned into a journalistic and political debacle.
Now the venerable news division, home of pioneering broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and for years the crown jewel of the "Tiffany Network," must repair the damage as it seeks to restore its credibility under difficult circumstances: Its prime-time newscast ranks third among the big three networks. It remains beset by conservative critics who say the organization is driven by liberal bias.
And although he was not among those forced out, anchor Dan Rather, who presented the controversial "60 Minutes Wednesday" piece, retires in March, leaving the network in the hunt for a successor to be its new public face.
Aired on Sept. 8 in the midst of a tight presidential race, the segment raised serious allegations about Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard.
The 224-page report, scathing in its summation, said CBS' handling of the story was flawed at almost every turn -- in the reporting that began in haste in late August, the internal process for reviewing the authenticity of documents, and even afterward, when questions were raised by Web loggers and journalists.
CBS News' problems with the story, the panel said, were the result of "a myopic zeal" to be first with the story, causing the network to fall short of its own core principles of accuracy and fairness. Although the report did not find evidence of political bias, it sharply criticized a producer for contacting the John F. Kerry campaign before the segment aired.
The panel, led by former Atty. Gen. Richard L. Thornburgh and former Associated Press executive Louis D. Boccardi, lambasted the network for "considerable and fundamental deficiencies" in preparing and later defending the story.
The story, titled "For the Record," alleged that Bush had received favorable treatment during his service during the Vietnam War era.
The story offered as evidence four documents allegedly written by Bush's late former commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, in 1972 and 1973. One of the documents stated that a retired Air National Guard general had put pressure on officers to "sugarcoat" Bush's evaluation; another indicated Killian recommended that Bush's flight status be suspended for failing to meet National Guard standards and not taking a required physical. All of the documents were said to be photocopies from Killian's personal files and were not part of the military's official records.
In the end, the panel was not able to determine whether the documents were authentic.
Even after serious questions had been raised about the story, the panel found, CBS News offered a "strident defense" of the story without fully investigating potential problems.
The news division also allowed many employees who worked on the original story to work on subsequent pieces defending it, the panel found. And the network issued inaccurate news releases that, among other things, declared that the source of the documents was "unimpeachable," the panel said, and that experts had deemed them authentic.
The panel said some CBS staffers called the events leading up to the story's airing a "perfect storm" in which multiple factors led to an overall failure of institutional safeguards. Among them: Executive Producer Josh Howard had just taken over as chief of "60 Minutes Wednesday," other producers deferred to Rather and his producer Mary Mapes, and a "zealous belief in the truth of the segment" that may have "led many to disregard some fundamental journalistic principles."
The panel also said that Mapes might have created the appearance of political bias by agreeing to put Burkett in touch with Joe Lockhart, a senior aide to Sen. Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate. But the report said the mistakes made in preparing the "60 Minutes" report were due more to competitive haste than any political agenda.
"There's no proof of any political bias" involved in preparing the "60 Minutes" story, Thornburgh said in a conference call with reporters.
The network terminated Mapes, the once-acclaimed producer who prepared the report.
Howard and a top deputy, Mary Murphy, will also lose their jobs, as will Betsy West, CBS News' senior vice president of prime time. West was the highest-ranking news executive to be disciplined in the matter. CBS also appointed a longtime news executive, Linda Mason, as a standards czar to help vet investigative stories in the future.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11/2
Los Angeles Times
(Page 2 of 4)
Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs
January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers
Though Rather was not fired for his role in the broadcast, CBS chief Leslie Moonves faulted him for "overzealously" defending the report after it was attacked by bloggers and other commentators. Rather had announced that he would retire in March after 24 years behind the anchor's desk.
"We feel that Dan has announced already that he's leaving the [anchor] chair shortly," Moonves said in an interview. "And he will remain with '60 Minutes.' We feel that Dan did his job."
Also spared the ax was Rather's boss, CBS News President Andrew Heyward, who, the independent panel and Moonves said, had conscientiously attempted to verify the report before broadcast.
Many observers were struck by the harshness of the panel's report. Although CBS commissioned the report, the panel said its conclusions were reached independently and the network had no control over the content of the report.
"It's the sharpest criticism any news organization has ever been subjected to in public," said Marvin Kalb, a former CBS correspondent and senior fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
Still, the panel's report seems unlikely to be the last word on the scandal. Even Rather's role in the controversy may not be entirely resolved. The panel's report said that despite his delivery last fall of a widely reported apology for the story, the anchor did not "fully agree" with CBS' decision to stop defending the Bush piece and "still believes that the content of the documents is accurate."
Through a representative, Rather declined to comment. "We can't possibly issue a statement today, because we have to read" the report, said Kim Akhtar, the anchor's spokeswoman.
Bob Schieffer, who sometimes substitutes for Rather on the "Evening News," filled in for the anchor on Monday's broadcast, which led with a story about the panel's report.
It also seems unlikely that the network will settle the future of the "Evening News" any time soon.
"There's no news on that," Moonves said of the search for a new anchor. "We're not even close to a decision."
Attempts to reach Howard, Murphy and West were unsuccessful. But in an e-mail sent to reporters covering the story, Mapes said she was "terribly disappointed in the conclusions of the report and its effects on the four of us who will no longer work at CBS News."
She also criticized Moonves for "vitriolic scape-goating" in his prepared response to the panel's report.
Of the panel's view that the report had been rushed to air, Mapes said: "Airing this story when it did was ... a decision made by my superiors, including Andrew Heyward. If there was a journalistic crime committed here, it was not by me."
Meanwhile, the panel's report was criticized Monday by radio host Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, who thought that it did not adequately address the liberal bias that they believed led CBS to rush the Bush story to air.
CBS News has been a target of such complaints for years, including a bestselling 2001 book "Bias," by former CBS staffer Bernard Goldberg.
The panel said that CBS relied heavily on retired Texas Army National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, who provided Mapes with the documents used in the report and who had been critical of the Bush administration in the past.
Although many media experts praised the panelists for doing a thorough and judicious job, enough questions remained that CBS News would still face a difficult challenge moving past the scandal.
"They have this giant millstone around their neck," said Richard Wald, a media professor at Columbia University and advisor to ABC News. The scandal "will be raised by every conservative commentator and every press critic there is."
The incident is also another black eye for American journalism, which has been reeling from an array of scandals in recent years, including New York Times reporter Jayson Blair's plagiarisms and fabrications, and the Tailwind report of 1998, in which CNN was forced to retract a story alleging that the U.S. military had used nerve gas on defectors during Vietnam.
Almost as soon as the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story aired on CBS, bloggers raised sharp questions about the veracity of the documents. In particular, critics argued that the proportional spacing, superscript "th" and Times New Roman font used in the documents could not have been produced by typewriters in the early 1970s.
CBS News initially insisted that the documents were genuine and stood by the report. The documents had been "thoroughly examined and their authenticity vouched for by independent experts," the news division said in a Sept. 9 news release.
But the panel said that statement, as well as others issued by CBS News over the following two weeks, was inaccurate. "No expert had vouched for the authenticity of the documents," the panel report said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11/3
Los Angeles Times
(Page 3 of 4)
Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs
January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers
The following day, Sept. 10, Heyward asked West, CBS News' senior vice president of prime time, to investigate some of the material used in preparing the "60 Minutes" report, including opinions from the forensic document examiners retained by the producers to authenticate the documents. But the panel said no such investigation was ever done.
"Had this directive been followed promptly, the panel does not believe that '60 Minutes Wednesday' would have publicly defended the segment for another 10 days," the report says.
The network's defense of the story began to crumble on Sept. 16, when the chief source, Burkett, began to change his story. He backed away from his initial claim that he got the documents from George Conn, a former Texas Army National Guard officer.
Getlin reported from New York, Collins from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Paul Lieberman and James Rainey contributed to this report.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Figures behind the CBS scandal
Key players in the drama surrounding the September broadcast on President Bush's National Guard duty
LEAVING:
Mary Mapes, producer, "60 Minutes Wednesday"
Mapes was primarily responsible for the research and development of the segment on President Bush and his military service. Many at CBS News viewed Mapes as a "superstar" reporter and producer; some of her superiors said they were in awe of her work. Mapes, a CBS staffer for 16 years, earned a reputation as a fearless journalist. She covered the 1992 Los Angeles riots and worked as a producer in Kabul just after the U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in 2001. Based in Dallas, she landed the first TV interviews with Strom Thurmond's biracial daughter and with Hillary Rodham Clinton after President Clinton's impeachment. Working with Dan Rather, Mapes was the first to obtain photographs showing the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Mapes and Rather had worked together for more than five years. Rather gave Mapes significant responsibility to produce stories, "in part due to the great confidence and respect he had for her work," the panel said.
Betsy West, CBS News senior vice president
West was asked by CBS News President Andrew Heyward to make sure the vetting of documents and sources in the "60 Minutes Wednesday" report was complete, and that the report was fair and unbiased. As one of the highest-ranking women at CBS News and an Emmy Award-winning news executive, West oversaw all prime-time news programming and was responsible for giving stories a final "fairness and accuracy" screening. Before joining CBS, West held a series of important assignments for ABC News. She was executive producer of the now-defunct "Turning Point" (1994-97) and created and oversaw the medical and legal units for ABC News. The panel faulted her for not heeding a Sept. 10 request by Heyward to investigate the opinions of documents experts who reviewed the National Guard memos before the Sept. 8 broadcast. No investigation was done, and the network would publicly defend its story another 10 days.
Josh Howard, executive producer, "60 Minutes Wednesday"
Howard joined CBS in 1981 and had begun a new job as executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" three months before the Bush National Guard story aired in September. The panel determined that Howard helped rush the report onto the air without thoroughly questioning Mapes about the story's sources and documentation. According to the report, he did little to assert his role as the producer ultimately responsible for the broadcast and all its content. He has served for nearly all of the last 14 years at "60 Minutes," becoming executive editor of the Sunday night broadcast in 2003. He took his last post in June. He was a senior producer for the CBS News magazine "Eye to Eye With Connie Chung" and was a producer for the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" from 1986-89. Howard has won 13 Emmy Awards for reports broadcast on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" and "60 Minutes."
Mary Murphy, senior broadcast producer, "60 Minutes Wednesday" and Howard's deputy
Murphy's job was to ride herd over the production of the segment at every stage, making sure it conformed to CBS News' standards. Like other CBS staffers who were asked to vet the 30-year-old memos, Murphy deferred to Mapes and her production team and did not perform her supervisory function, according to the report.
She worked as senior producer of "48 Hours" and executive producer of "Before Your Eyes," a 1998 documentary on a deportation battle over three former members of the Irish Republican Army.
She was senior broadcast producer of "CBS Sunday Morning" and senior editor of CBS News' "Campaign 2004" unit, which was the editorial hub for election-year coverage on all broadcasts. She served in the same capacity for CBS News' coverage of the war in Iraq.
STAYING:
Dan Rather, anchor and managing editor, "CBS Evening News"; correspondent, "60 Minutes Wednesday"
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/nation/na-cbs11/4
Los Angeles Times
(Page 4 of 4)
Report Condemns CBS News; 4 Lose Jobs
January 11, 2005 Josh Getlin and Scott Collins Times Staff Writers
Rather was the on-camera face of the National Guard story. Busy with the Republican National Convention in New York and then a hurricane in Florida, he was not able to put extensive time into its development. Rather did not appear to participate in any of the vetting sessions, the independent panel said, "or to have even seen the segment before it was aired." After questions were raised about the veracity of the Guard memos, Rather defended the story but then publicly apologized and acknowledged the memos could not be authenticated.
Rather began his career in journalism 50 years ago as a wire service and radio reporter in Texas.
He joined CBS News in 1962, holding prestigious positions ranging from co-editor of "60 Minutes" to anchor of "CBS Evening News." He served as bureau chief in London and Saigon and covered the White House during the Johnson and Nixon administrations.
Andrew Heyward, CBS News president
Heyward had explicitly urged caution before the report aired. Afterward, he issued instructions to Betsy West to investigate the sourcing of the story and authentication of the documents.
Before his promotion to president in 1996, he was executive producer of the CBS News magazine "Eye to Eye" from 1993 to 1994 and executive producer, "CBS Evening News," and vice president, "CBS News" from 1994 to 1996.
Since Heyward was named president, CBS News launched "60 Minutes Wednesday" and the Saturday "Early Show" and developed ventures in new media. Heyward began his career with CBS in 1976 as a news writer for WCBS-TV, the CBS-owned television station in New York. He joined "CBS Evening News" as a field producer in 1984 and later became senior broadcast producer of the "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" from 1986 to 1987. In 1988, he helped launch "48 Hours," the primetime CBS news hour.
Los Angeles Times
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Events in the scandal
An independent panel criticized CBS News for a controversial "60 Minutes Wednesday" story last fall about President Bush's military service. Here are the events surrounding the controversy:
Aug. 23, 2004: A week before the Republican National Convention, Mary Mapes, a CBS correspondent and producer, learns that Lt. Col. Bill Burkett is rumored to have important documents regarding Bush's military service.
Sept. 2: Mapes receives two memos from Burkett. She and other CBS staffers begin "a frenetic effort to 'crash,'" or quickly assemble, the story for broadcast, according to the independent panel.
Sept. 3: An associate producer is assigned to have the documents authenticated. Yvonne Miller has no background in this process but finds four handwriting and document experts willing to look at them.
Labor Day weekend: Mapes speaks by phone with Joe Lockhart, a senior advisor to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. They would later give conflicting versions of the discussion.
Sept. 8, 2004: Rather presents the report on Bush's service, based largely on four typed memos that it said were written by Bush's late squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.
Sept. 9: Four hours after broadcast, a blogger named "Buckhead" is the first to challenge the authenticity of the documents. Other challenges follow.
Sept. 10: Rather says CBS stands by its story. CBS News defends the original report for several more days.
Sept. 20: After handwriting experts and the clerk typist for Bush's supervisor question the authenticity of the memos, Rather apologizes and says CBS can no longer vouch for them.
Sept. 22: CBS names an independent panel to investigate the National Guard story.
Nov. 23: Rather announces he will step down as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" on March 9, 2005.
Jan. 10, 2005: The independent panel releases its findings in a 224-page report.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/quotes
IMDb
Die Hard (1988)
Quotes
Hans Gruber: [on the radio] Mr. Mystery Guest? Are you still there?
John McClane: Yeah, I'm still here. Unless you wanna open the front door for me.
Hans Gruber: Uh, no, I'm afraid not. But, you have me at a loss. You know my name but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshal Dillon?
John McClane: Was always kinda partial to Roy Rogers actually. I really like those sequined shirts.
Hans Gruber: Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy?
John McClane: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.
2016September20_Chloe55_DSC00743.jpg
- posted by Kerry Burgess 7:54 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Monday 18 December 2017
