Amazon.com: Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power: Mary Mapes: Books

Review

“Ms. Mapes details her rise and fall with a considerable amount of flair and self-deprecating humor…Simply put, she is woman, hear her roar—on behalf of both her instilled patriotism and her journalistic integrity….TRUTH AND DUTY is a good read from start to finish.”—The Dallas Morning News

“Mapes musters a controlled, readable narrative about the story that became her professional undoing…the story…builds by increments (including) the memos themselves, and how they mesh—in ways large and small, in nuance and substance—with Bush’s official Guard records.”—The Washington Post Book World

“It’s an illuminating look into journalism and the challenges reporters face in an era of blogging, instant Internet analysis, corporate ownership and network news starts.”—The Buffalo News

“In…TRUTH AND DUTY, [Mapes] comes across as the kind of rip-snorting rodeo rider of the news I would have killed to work with as an editor. Her gallop through such Mapes-produced ‘60 Minutes II’ scoops as securing Karla Faye Tucker’s death row interview or tracking down Strom Thurmond’s black illegitimate daughter or exposing the atrocities of Abu Ghraib gives us a heart-racing glimpse of a resourceful TV pro in her fearless prime.”—Tina Brown

“TRUTH AND DUTY is a plainspoken…oftentimes sympathetic look at how the National Guard story came to be and why it fell apart.”—The New York Observer

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

It was a great story. A true story. The kind of story any news producer would love to report, nail down and get on the air. And that’s just what Mary Mapes and her producing and reporting team did in September, 2004, when Dan Rather anchored their report on President George W. Bush’s dereliction of his National Guard duty for CBS News. The firestorm that followed their broadcast trashed Mapes’ well-respected career, caused Rather to resign from his anchor chair a year early, and led to an unprecedented “internal inquiry” into the story—chaired by former Reagan Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

TRUTH AND DUTY is Mapes’ account of the often-surreal, always-harrowing fallout she experienced for raising questions about a powerful sitting president. It goes back to examine Bush’s political roots as governor of Texas and answers questions about the solidity of the documents at the heart of the National Guard story as well as where they came from. Her book takes readers not just into the newsroom where coverage decisions are made, but out into the field where the real reporting is done. TRUTH AND DUTY is peopled with a colorful and vigorous cast of characters—from Karl Rove to Sumner Redstone, Bill Burkett to Dan Rather—and moves from small-town rural Texas to the deserts of Afghanistan, from hurricane season in Florida to CBS corporate headquarters Black Rock in New York City.

TRUTH AND DUTY is a riveting account of how the public’s right to know—or even to ask questions—is being attacked by an alliance of politicians, news organizations, bloggers and corporate America. It connects the dots between the emergence of a kind of digital McCarthyism, a corporation under fire from the federal government, and the decision about what kinds of stories a news network can cover (human interest: yes; political intrigue: no).

An answer to Bernard Goldberg and the thunder from the right, TRUTH AND DUTY is always fast, sometimes furious, and often unexpectedly funny about the collapse of one of America’s great institutions.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (November 8, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031235195X
ISBN-13: 978-0312351953
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (68 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #600,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
new memos, elitist liberal, document analysts, flight physical

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
National Guard, New York, Dan Rather, Abu Ghraib, White House, President Bush, Bill Burkett, Andrew Heyward, Jeff Fager, Ben Barnes, Mike Smith, Jerry Killian, Les Moonves, Roger Charles, Colonel Killian, Dick Thornburgh, Essie Mae, General Hodges, Marcel Matley, Camp Mabry, Lou Boccardi, The Washington Post, Bobby Hodges, United States, Air Guard

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 6 books:

My American Journey by Colin L. Powell on page 59
Fortunate Son: George W. Bush - The Early Years by J.H. Hatfield on page 208
Labor Day (Carolrhoda on My Own Books) by Geoffrey Scott on page 163
New York (Land of Liberty) by Ellen Sturm on page 230
A Charge to Keep by George W. Bush on page 138

See all 6 books this book cites

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Customer Reviews

68 Reviews

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(25)

Average Customer Review

3.1 out of 5 stars (68 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Warning, January 7, 2006

By	Dan - Seattle (Seattle, Wa United States) - See all my reviews

This book is a warning to people who use the networks as their only source of news. The alphabet networks are anything but unbiased. I long for the "good old days" when all they did was report the news, with integrity.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fake but accurate. Well, fake anyway..., November 26, 2008

By	Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Mary Mapes' story about President Bush's National Guard service was "fake but accurate" we are told. This book, however, is just fake. Every once in a while I force myself to read a book by someone on the other side of the political divide from myself. This book was a bad choice. Now, Mapes is good at recasting facts and history to present herself in a good light. But the fact is that she was grinding this particular axe for many years, and was delighted to accept "evidence" that was incontrovertibly fake in order to "prove" a story that was equally fake.

This book's real bias is evident from its title. The "power" that Mapes really wants to see is the privilege and power of the media to distort the news, or tell outright lies and get away with it.

American politics will be in a bad way as long as the news media cuts in only one direction, and is infested by political axe-grinders like Mapes. Thank goodness that the internet and other "new media" are rapidly destroying the media Oligopoly's ability to distort the news to the American people.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book; Delusional Author, December 28, 2008

By	A. Rupp (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power (Paperback)

The 60 Minutes II piece on President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service has become such a political football that it is almost impossible to analyze the simple question of whether CBS should have run with it or not. Although the book was entertaining, I was unimpressed with Ms. Mapes's defense of the story and her own motivations. She tells us on page 20 that she will reveal who she is and what she believes -- "with some trepidation" -- and then proceeds to do nothing of the sort, using an old straw-man technique and sarcasm to suggest (but not state) that she is not "an elitist liberal."

Most maddening is her inability to understand that criticism of her journalism and CBS's decision to air the story are warranted EVEN IF the documents later proved to be authentic -- something that remains a subject of intense debate even today. Mapes's "ends-justify-the-means" defense is so mind-numbingly illogical, so lacking in common sense, that it does even more to harm her journalistic reputation than to help it. Note to Mapes: If you had decided that the documents were authentic based on the flip of a coin, would it really matter if, later, after you aired the story, they were proven accurate by more acceptable means? Can't you see the inanity of your position?

Mapes also appears to suffer from smartest person in the room syndrome, repeatedly arguing that her efforts to "mesh" the new documents with Bush's official records showed no inconsistencies. How could it be, she argues, that a forger could create documents that so seemlessly meshed with the official record, with no contradictions? Note to Mapes: That is EXACTLY what a forger would do. The official records were in the public domain and had been known for years. You are not the only person smart enough to determine what "meshed" with them and what didn't. Your rhetorical questions throughout the book about what a forger would or would not do demonstrate your gullibility and your naivete.

I also found it odd that Mapes -- who desperately wants to be seen as having no political agenda when it comes to her work -- repeatedly makes unnecessary (and often almost childish) political statements that are critical of Bush, Republican policies, and the political right. Perhaps Mapes does not even realize when she is being partisan.

Frankly, I was amazed that this book was the best Mapes could do to support CBS's decision to air the story. Her sources were suspect, her research gap-filled. I'm willing to take her word that she didn't intend to further a political agenda. She seems like a hard-working, pleasant, and loyal person. But this book has left me wondering how anyone can trust anything on the news. If a long-time journalist like Mapes thinks that she had enough hard evidence to go with this important story, I can only imagine what would be deemed satisfactory evidence for the thousands of stories of lesser importance.

I recommend the book. Although not particularly well-written or organized, I found Mapes's behind-the-scenes descriptions of reporting techniques interesting.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Too little too late
My impression about Mary Mapes changed substantially after reading her book. After the broadcast of GWB's ANG service in Texas, a nationwide impression of her attempting to... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Christopher P. Forest

5.0 out of 5 stars RAW COURAGE
Mary Mapes's "Truth and Duty" is a book written for vindication. Mary Mapes, a former respected and veteran investigative journalist at CBS did a very bad thing: she did her job... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Mark Watterson

5.0 out of 5 stars A sad commentary on the current state of journalism
Truth and Duty is a fascinating read and a very sad commentary on the state of the news media in our FauxNews World. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Gene W. Devaux

3.0 out of 5 stars An important but flawed story
I am most of the way through the book and while I find her story compelling some of it is self serving. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Mark S. Schaffer

2.0 out of 5 stars Move over Mary, you are in the way of the truth.
Mary Mapes has done her profession and this country wrong with this unflinching, and unconvincing work of fiction. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Solomon Menckel

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Rather haters should be forced to read this.
There was absolutely nothing wrong that Dan Rather did in this episode.
The ultra right wing media of which CBS is a part of totally distorted this
episode... Read more

Published on February 15, 2007 by Frank Werner

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent expose. Factual and filled with detailed insight.
I didn't know what to expect when I first read this book. After reading it and cross checking several verifiable facts I was astounded at the sheer arrogance that the priviliged... Read more

Published on November 6, 2006 by R. Medrano

1.0 out of 5 stars Funny Title
Shouldn't this book be called "I was wrong, and I'm sorry?"
What arrogance.

Published on September 7, 2006 by Micah Wiesenberg

5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting, well-written and revealing look at a news industry more influenced by profit and politics than principle and truth.
Ms. Mapes is an excellent writer. I couldn't put the book down. Of course, I would expect nothing less from a successful television news producer/reporter with over 25 years of... Read more

Published on September 2, 2006 by Ronald Wood

1.0 out of 5 stars All hail, Queen of journalism standards
scene 1: a filandering sociopath running for President is about to become a blip on the political landscape, because the nightclub dancer who he claims he doesn't know, captured a... Read more

Published on July 3, 2006 by C. Cotten

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