Missing the forest for the trees.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Mary Mapes's new book Truth and Duty - Brief Article

Read Truth and Duty, Mary Mapes's new book about the Bush National Guard story that gut her fired from CBS News and left a cloud over the reputation of her boss, Dan Rather. Although she clearly does not number a gift for self-criticism among her more conspicuous virtues, she is convincing in her demonstration that her story was essentially true, and that those reporters who focused on her minor errors--which includes almost everyone who covered the story--missed the major point.

The result was that the press allowed itself to be conned by the right into allowing Bush to escape the...