Never was a movie more ironically titled than the new rewriting of history called “Truth.” It attempts to make martyrs of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes. Head shaking all around. On Need to Know this week, Jay and I welcome Scott Johnson of the Powerlineblog.com. Johnson achieved something momentous in 2004, and in light of the movie, it’s worth reveling in again. With nothing more than the power of his computer and the website’s followers, he and they were able to prove that Rather and CBS had peddled blatant falsehoods about George W. Bush. Rather relied on forged documents. CBS ran the story just before the election in an effort to defeat the Republican. Powerlineblog unmasked them. It was SO satisfying.
Jay and I then speak of police and the Black Lives Matter movement, whether CNBC anchors should do all future Republican debates, Leonard Bernstein and the ambitions of the middle class, and Bernie Sanders getting called a sexist. We pay tribute to the late Fred Thompson — and Jay recalls (because he recalls everything — it’s a little scary) the role Thompson played in digging into the Clinton financial scandals of the 1990s. Plus ca change. . .