The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

St. Martin's Press has hit upon a novel advertising strategy for its release of Mary Mapes' book, emphasizing that she is now flying with even less of a net below her than before. "No One's Censoring Her Now," reads the ad in the New Yorker. Now she's got no editor, it exults: "Get the clear, unedited picture of the biggest news stories in the run-up to the 2004 election."

See the Forgeries They Didn't Let Her Run!

Meanwhile, in a rollout Joan Didion might envy, the Washington Post runs today a review of Mapes' book and a Howard Kurtz story about her. The reviewer, Paul Farhi, reminds readers of the proper lens through which to examine the fiasco: the bloggers were right but bad; Mapes was wrong but good. "Her case is by no means airtight," he allows, but "it does suggest that if the Killian memos were fakes, they were more artful, rigorous and extraordinarily well-crafted fakes than Mapes's accusers are willing to admit." Farhi calls the bloggers a "mob" who should have given Mapes an A for effort: "She may have been duped, but she was demonstrably not reckless in her pursuit of this story."