TRUTH

TRUTH is a liberal movie defending the phony CBS News story about President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard during the latter stages of the Vietnam War and glorifying the “journalistic” career of Dan Rather, one of the phoniest and most biased liberal “journalists” in television news. TRUTH is a one-sided portrayal of a controversial issue and a controversial reporter, who’s been exposed as a biased villain, who consistently promoted a hateful and libelous liberal agenda. Based on a book by Mary Mapes, the producer of the Bush report who was later fired by CBS, the movie opens with Mary and her team at 60 Minutes finding some alleged evidence that Pres. Bush went AWOL for one year as a pilot, in 1972-73. They also seem to find evidence that, like other men from wealthy or powerful families, Bush got a deferral from regular military service (and Vietnam) because of his father’s name and social, political influence. Mary seems to get confirmation of the story about alleged documents signed by a now dead commanding officer named Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. The Killian documents seem to corroborate the story that Bush ceased fulfilling his duties and, in effect, went AWOL. Killian also complains that higher ups in the military pressured him and other officers to let servicemen like Bush break the rules. After Dan Rather and 60 MINUTES goes on TV with the story and the documents, some people begin questioning the documents. Evidence is found that the documents, which are copies, not originals, look like they were typed on a modern computer, not the kinds of typewriters the military used at the time. CBS launches an investigation of Mary, Dan Rather, their team, and their story. A retired officer who seemed to confirm the Killian documents over the phone says Mary’s report of his conversation with her and another team member was significantly different than what she reported to Rather and the other team members. He says Mary never showed him the documents and that the only thing he told her was that, if the documents are genuine, then they probably reflect Killian’s feelings about Bush and other servicemen with powerful connections. Clearly, Mary was in too much of a hurry to get confirmation of a story designed to make President Bush, who was in the midst of his 2004 re-election campaign, look as bad as possible. Eventually, Mary, Dan and their team must defend their report before the CBS committee conducting the investigation. The movie ends with her defense of the report and cheers for Dan Rather, who is eventually forced to resign because of the scandal. TRUTH not only tries to defend the CBS stories questioning Pres. Bush’s service record in the Texas Air National Guard; but, it also defends the authenticity of the allegedly fake documents presented by CBS, Mary Mapes, Dan Rather, and their team. However, it defends these things in a completely one-sided fashion that never gives the other side a chance to dispute the story or attack the documents’ authenticity. So, how is a moviegoer, or even a film critic, to judge whether the arguments the movie and its protagonist make are rational arguments based on actual facts? Well, MOVIEGUIDE®’s own research into this matter calls into question the truth of this whole movie. For example, it you want an excellent refutation of the Mary Mapes book and, by extension, this movie, look no further than this excellent article by Megan McArdle, who says she voted for Gore in 2000, Bush in 2004 and Obama in 2008: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-24/ex-60-minutes-producer-is-no-hollywood-hero. This article disproves the movie’s contention that the font and lettering in the documents could indeed be found in the military and in Killian’s office at the time. The article also notes Killian’s secretary denied typing the documents and believes the documents are fake, though she also believes that Bush really did get favors while serving in the Guard. Finally, this article reveals a lot of faults in Mapes’ and Rather’s approach to journalism. Instead of asking themselves, for instance, whether the story attacking Bush’s service record is false, they looked for evidence to show that the story is true. “Falsification is a much more reliable route to the truth than confirmation,” McArdle writes. For another, somewhat partisan, but rather convincing and well-written, attack on Mary Mapes’ alleged competence as a journalist, see this commentary: http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2005/11/fisking-mary-mapes-resisting-revision.html. A defense of Mary and Rather’s handling of the Bush story can, naturally, be found in the egocentric book by Mary Mapes on which this movie is based. As for the movie’s glorification of Dan Rather, the evidence clearly shows that Rather’s reporting has reflected a liberal, if not leftist and anti-conservative, bias since the early 1960s when he became a famous journalist. For example, the day President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Rather reported that schoolchildren in one class cheered when they heard the news. What Rather didn’t report, however, was that the schoolchildren were actually cheering the news that they suddenly got the day off. Thus, they really weren’t cheering the President’s murder. (Of course, this has long been the liberal left’s mantra about the Kennedy assassination, that he was murdered by a hateful right-wing cabal, the Mafia or a group of rogue CIA officials when, in reality, a communist named Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy, probably in cahoots with Cuba’s communist dictator, Fidel Castro, who hated Kennedy.) Furthermore, when covering the Vietnam War, Dan Rather and the whole CBS News team, from Walter Cronkite on down, covered the height of that war (1965-1973) in a biased way that showed America and American troops in negative ways, and failed to acknowledge the evils represented by America’s communist enemies. For example, they viewed North Vietnam’s infamous “Tet Offensive” in 1968 as a defeat for the United States Armed Forces and our allies, South Vietnam, when, in reality, it was a victory! In fact, the negative coverage during this series of historical battles in 1968 is, arguably, the most significant event that turned the American people against the Vietnam War and thereafter seriously damaged if not ruined America’s chances of winning any future wars against similar evils and similar villains, including mass murderers and terrorists. It certainly led to the repression and murder of millions of people in Communist, Atheist Cambodia and Vietnam after American troops left Southeast Asia. For a rundown of many other examples of Rather’s more recent biased reporting, look no further than this article: http://archive.mrc.org/projects/rather20th/welcome.asp. Ironically, one scene in TRUTH shows Mapes watching a news report on the controversy surrounding the Vietnam record of Bush’s 2004 opponent, the pedantic John Kerry. Mapes shows no interest in covering THAT story, but chomps indelicately and excitedly at the bit in trying to get the goods on George W. Bush and his family. Of course, CBS News, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes also showed little interest in exposing Bill Clinton’s Vietnam War deferment and his comments in a letter that he “loathed” the military. Clearly, these people are not real “journalists”; they’re partisan hacks, whom Stalin would have called “useful idiots.” As for the quality of the movie itself, in addition to the movie’s propagandistic, one-sided nature, the acting in TRUTH is boringly earnest and self-righteous in that boringly earnest and self-righteous way liberal actors have when trying to attack or libel Republicans, Christians or conservatives. In addition, Cate Blanchett is too pretty and too intelligent as Mary Mapes, who in real life looks like a disheveled, clueless loon. As Dan Rather, Robert Redford makes little to no attempt to reflect Dan Rather’s personality and accent as a folksy Texan. He’s much more bland here than he has been in his recent movies. Ultimately, therefore, moviegoers interested in captivating movies, wholesome entertainment and real truth would do well to steer clear of this TRUTH, the latest leftist diatribe from Hollywood in a year that has seen more than its fair share of such pretentious, annoying cinematic failures.