Rathergate in graphic form -- who's been conspiring with whom

[starroute]

I did up a couple of concept maps to try to sort out the complicated relationships among the various members of the vast right-wing conspiracy who have been involved in one way or another in pouncing on the CBS memos and trying to use them to slime the Kerry campaign. I'm posting each one as a reply below, with some comments. The maps won't mean much unless you've been following the threads -- so if you want to go back and pick up the discussion, here are the main ones:

Blogger Who Faulted CBS Documents Is Conservative Activist (AKA. Freeper)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=835262

So Buckhead is MacDougald. Now, is there any way to link him to Rove?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=863069

GOP Activist may be behind CBS National Guard memos
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=849699

rathergate.com!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2400623

GOP + rathergate.com = vast wingnut conspiracy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2407402

FEC Complaint Filed Against CBS and Kerry
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x859942

[starroute]

1. Buckhead and the others who propagated the forgery claims

This chart shows along the top the line of transmission from "Buckhead," who first proclaimed (incorrectly) that the memos could have been produced in MS Word, to the blogger who passed the story along, to the media firms which pushed it along to The Drudge Report.

It shows how these various individuals and groups are involved in a dense network of associations with one another and with most of the figures and organizations of the vast right-wing conspiracy who were trying to destroy Bill Clinton back in the 90's -- Ken Starr, the Claremont Institute, The American Spectator, Richard Mellon Scaire, Regnery Publishing, etc.

It also shows how these same people are connected to the Swift Boat liars. And for good measure, it throws in a few interesting names, such as Bob Barr, Newt Gingrich, and Pat Buchanan.

[progressivebydesign]

18. Looks GREAT Starroute!!!

DU rocks!

[starroute]

25. Here's the cleaned up version of the Buckhead chart from #1

[AnIndependentTexan]

29. Odd this chart was showing up earlier and now it isn't

Something weird here.

[starroute]

2. The Roger Stone axis of dirty tricksters

This second chart shows a group of names that branch out from Roger Stone (who has been named as a possible source of the CBS memos) and Mike Krempasky (who quickly registered the domain name rathergate.com as a center of anti-CBS agitation.)

Most of these people come out of the Young Republicans/dirty tricks wing of the Republican party. There is not much overlap with the people in the first chart -- who tend to be anti-establishment wingnuts -- although a few names, like Brent Bozell, do appear on both.

Richard Viguerie and Morton Blackwell are probably the pivotal figures in this group (as Richard Mellon Scaife is in the first group.)

[George_S]

7. Excellent!

That makes it so much easier to see the connections.

I think they are all, from both charts, connected to the Heritage Foundation though. Maybe they have different tactics for each group depending on the situation?

Good work.

[LittleClarkie]

11. I see you mention Judicial Watch

Don't forget that they also filed a complaint with the Navy over Kerry's medals. That was the complaint that the Navy responded to last week by saying that Kerry had gotten his medals legitimately and that all records were in order.

Just one more connection.

Also, don't these people remember that Free Republic's blog was mentioned at least one other time in this political year, specifically when the Swift Boat Vets for "Truth" came out with their book, co-authored by O'Neill and Jerome Corsi? Doesn't anyone remember that Corsi, the bigot who talked about Catholics and ragheads?

Is William Safire aware of who he is quoting? They make it sound so nice by calling them conservative blogging sites, but they are bigots. Does this man not care about his reputation?

I just don't understand any of this.

[starroute]

15. Slightly more legible version of the above

[progressivebydesign]

19. Shoot, I'm not getting this graphic!

Is there something wrong with the graphic? THis one's not coming up.

I hope that DUers seeing this thread realize that this wonderful chart(s) are the result of several days of digging by some of the DUers here... and are not just guesses. There is MUCH more to these charts, but they cannot hold all of the connections in one place.

A good idea for everyone, if you're so inclined, is to pick out a few of the people/groups on the chart and do some quick research on them. The PR company Creative Response (?), listed on the chart lists VIACOM as a client, also. The web of connection is staggering.. and they all lead to Bush, through a variety of people on the chart.

The whole query started with a post by George_S, a relatively new, but waaaay great DUer. The post that started all of this was regarding the www.rather.com website... and it took off from there. Starroute did an amazing job on these charts! :yourock: They are just the tip of the iceberg.

edited for a spelling mishap!

[starroute]

24. I replaced it with the cleaner version in post #15

I'm sorry for causing any confusion, but I'm hoping these charts might be spread around, and I wanted to have the best versions possible out there. I will probably replace the other as well by this evening.

The software I'm using (a nifty program called CMap, which is free for personal and non-profit use) is new to me, and I'm learning as I go how to do these charts so they look really sharp.

[demgrrrll]

3. I am sure this has been discussed but Sumner Redstone's recent

revelation that he is going to vote for Bush because he is good for the Viacom corporation is stunning. I wonder if he is trying to provide cover for Rather. what he said does not make any sense given his history and background.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Yes it does, IN A POLICE STATE

Wanna bet he got a call from the White House?

[qanda]

5. Kick

:kick:

Looks like you did a lot of work on this. :thumbsup:

[grasswire]

6. thanks...

...very interesting.

[frylock]

8. cool shit..

nice work there. Kick for early bird east coasters.

[George_S]

9. We have to keep up...

Now that we know a small but big-mouthed group of people are behind all of this, we know they aren't too big to beat. How?

Here's an example.

bartcop.com blogs today about the backlash against CBS and links to a Yahoo! article:

The campaign appears to originate from a blogger on the Web site, Rathergate.com, who is forwarding e-mails to stations around the country.

"The buck has to stop," said Mike Krempasky of Falls Church, Va., who works for a political advertising company and set up Rathergate.com, as well as the conservative-oriented Web site, Redstate.org.

"He's certainly the face of the story," he said. "He's the one who sneered at anyone who dared criticize him on the story for 10 days. He's the one who put his credibility on the line when he said he believed in the story."

...

"We had so much outcry from our listeners. They were calling and complaining and saying they wouldn't listen to a CBS newscast anymore," said Lisa Sinclair, general manager of Sinclair Communications, which owns WNIS and four other stations in the Norfolk area, home to the world's largest naval base.

"This is a conservative market, and people felt that CBS was exhibiting a great deal of liberal bias and lost credibility with this situation," Sinclair said, referring to the Sept. 8 story.

However, dailykos.com has this story from 4/29/04:

Sinclair communications corporate counsel decided to pull the Nightline broadcast from their 8 ABC affiliates. Sinclair Broadcasting owns 62 stations, and specializes in "Television Duopolies" - creating markets where all major affiliates are owned by two companies (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS). They also contribute heavily to Bush -according open secrets the company or its directors have given over $200,000 to the RNC and Republican Candidates, nothing to Democrats.

Sirota has more:

Sinclair's CEO David Smith was also a close ally of the White House's in the President's recent decision to deregulate the FCC. As he told the NY Times on 4/3/02, the "decision validates what we have been saying all along: that the rules governing television ownership are outdated, without basis, and anticompetitive in today's media environment." You can see that story here.

Additionally, the right wing is now touting Sinclair as "the next Fox." As the right-wing website Newsmax reports, "One of the nation’s newest and fastest-growing TV news networks says it's tired of left-leaning news reporting and wants to offer Americans a fair and balanced perspective, just as Fox News Channel does. Fox News eschewed politically correct news to become the dominant force on cable news. And now the Sinclair Broadcast Group has been following in Fox's footsteps to do the same for broadcast news in news markets across the nation." You can see that full story here.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/4/29/171249/664

So we have to assume any story is propaganda and hunt the truth down. They want the media and will take it if we let them. We have to double and triple check everything and cannot believe anything the right says.

[George_S]

10. Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group on Thursday ordered its eight ABC affiliates to pre-empt Friday's "Nightline" broadcast of the reading of the names of US military personnel killed in Iraq, saying the program is "motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq."
...
In a fax to press Thursday, the Baltimore-based media company, whose holdings include 62 local TV stations, said that by airing Friday's Nightline program, "ABC is disguising political statements as news content."
...
John Dunbar of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity said, "I fell out of my chair when I read Sinclair's statement." Dunbar, whose organization monitors and reports upon the influence of money over politics, considers Koppel's reporting to be politically moderate. "Based on what Sinclair did, it's impossible not to see where their political interests lie," he said.

The broadcasting giant reported first quarter preliminary results for net broadcast revenues reached $158.3 million. The Q1 increase over last year -- about $4 million more than the company expected -- came in part from $1.3 million in additional political advertising revenues in key election states such as Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, Illinois and Maine, where Sinclair owns stations.

-- Timothy Karr is Executive Director of MediaChannel.org

We have to catch things like this, track down the links and discover where it is greed, and not morality, that drives these people. It will always be greed. We only have to connect the dots.

[deckerd]

12. What about a Third chart of names, Please?

You might want to do a chart establishing Stone's alleged relationship to the dirty tricks themselves. Without that, your first two charts, while absolutely wonderful, are meaningless to the most well-informed person.

Might I suggest a chart with the following names spun out in roughly linear fashion below:

Marty Heldt (alleged alternative source)

"Original" Source (Burkett's colleague)

(disputed claims he witnessed) Rove/Bush Rove/Bush
| |
Payroll/Official Docs (trashed) ---By:--- NAMES --at request of-- NAMES
^
|
(became well known over 4 years for claiming to have witnessed)
|
|
Bill Burkett (the patsy) (burned originals at request of)

"Lucy Ramirez" (the front person)

Antonio(?) Ramirez (name of spokesman for) Elian Gonzalez in-laws

(related to) Nydia Stone (see below)

Bill Burkett's female friend (name?) (witnessed Burkett at trade show)

Unknown White Man at Trade Show (the mule)

Yvette Lozano AKA "(?)" (what was her pseudonym, if any, when she dumped fake tapes on: )

(Name?) Gore Operative who got duped by fake tapes

Roger Stone ------- NY Post ------ Unchallenged DNC Press Release

(alleging that Stone forged or duped the CBS Memos to replicate: )

Original Memos From Private File ---written/dictated by: Killian
(secretary to)
(claimed to have typed by) Knox (CO in 73 of 1st Lt. GW)

Other Retired TANG witnesses

(interviewed By)

CBS Producer ---- (Name?) (interviewed & gave copies to) Dan Bartlett (gave to) Rove
Mapes (hired) (released to media w/out comment)
|
| CBS Authenticator who Turned Out to Be Amateur
|
| Handwriting Specialist (also authenticated another legendary disputed doc; cite?)
|
| CBS COMPUTER font "experts"

(forced to back down by independent "experts": )

COMPUTER font "experts"

(?) "expert" who stated there were no "th" in verified * docs (false)

NON-FONT EXPERT techie who cited "pseudo-kerning" and centering

(cited false kerning claim: ) Howard Kurtz (husband of? ) Republican campaign person(?)

(?) who stated "th" must be above the line to count as superscript
(on a typewriter, vert. position of letters depends on random variation plus backing up the drum a half-step, an optional, easy, manual step)

Buckhead (see chart of on-line RW opposition researchers

(relationship to Rove)


Ret. officer Staudt
(alleged to have lobbied) ------ Killian

(relationship to) --------- Former TX Sen. GHW Bush -------

(admits he was requested special favors for * by ^^ )
||
Ret. TX Speaker Ben Barnes


Nydia Stone, wife of Roger Stone (related(?) to)

(Name?) Other Relevant Person(s) from Recount Mob

Chuck Colson

Lee Atwater

Karl Rove

Forged(?) "yellowcake" memo (part of: )
|
| Cancelled CBS Story (60 Minutes, "Rationale For War")
|
(used to discredit)

diplomat Joseph Wilson (criticised justification for war in front of)

(specify venue) (also heard from) Richard Clarke

(recommended for Niger fact-finding mission by wife: )

Former CIA NOC Valerie Plame (outed by)

Robert Novak
Unnamed Admin Official (also contacted)
Journalists A, B (names?)

(under investigation by) Name of FBI investigator
| |
(reports to) AG Ashcroft (interrogated) (Cheney's COS) -- VP Cheney
who else?

[deckerd]

35. Starroute? Anybody?

I could produce such a flo-chart, but I do not have the graphics handling capabilities to put it on the web asa gif or jpeg image.

I'd greatly appreciate if someone could put the allegations of
forgery, previous incidents and allegations by the same parties, tovether so people who haven't been following this will have a
better understanding of the players involved and what they are
capable of.

Most pople have not been followig this story well enough to know
who's who. A Burkett -- Stone -- Rove -- Plamegate flo chart
wiuld do much to explain graphically Rove's M.O.

Thanks

[deckerd]

38. I Guess y'all aren't interested

in establishing the particulars of this case for the uninformed, prior to leaping directly into blue-sky talk of the vast right-wing conspiracy responsible for doing... something... memo-related that most people -- most Dems -- can't even agree on what's going on with the memos. Sad really.

If you want to first establish the facts and particulars for the benefit of uninformed readers before preaching to the converted, feel free to use what I wrote two messages upthread.

[Justice]

13. Please don"t call it "Rathergate"

Republicans love to name scandals when the scandal helps Republicans. Don't encourage it.

It is better for it to have a long tortured name - like the allegedly false memos aired by CBS.

[progressivebydesign]

14. The term is being used because it is part of the research...

.. the initial setup of a website called "rathergate" is what started this chain of research a few days ago, and figures prominently in this. I've been working on this stuff also, along with Starroute and others, and it's the central piece of the tie-ins.. otherwise, I'd never give the freeps the satisfaction of using that term, nor would Starroute. I agree with not promoting their disgusting faux scandals, but this time it's legit to the topic at hand.

[George_S]

17. Maybe we should call it....

rathergate dot freepergate.

Mm, freepergate?

[KittyWampus]

21. Memogate Sounds A Helluva Lot More Respectful To Dan Rather

who really doesn't need to have his integrity futher impugned by involving his name as TITLE to this smear.

[gollygee]

23. I still don't like the name

I'd like this to go down in history without Dan Rather's name attached to it.

[gollygee]

22. Thank you

I was about to post the same thing. The Freepers are calling it Rathergate because they want Dan Rather to get fired. Let's not fall into that trap.

[George_S]

28. Good points

Let's call it freepergate. Is it too late for starroute to edit it?

If so, can a mod do so?

[starroute]

33. I used "Rathergate" to catch the eye of people from the earlier threads

I don't like it much myself, but with DU as large as it's gotten, it's hard to keep a group of interested people together.

Should we petition for a new forum called "Research" for people who want to explore certain topics in depth and keep the continuity going?


On edit: The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of some sort of "Research" forum. Especially if Kerry wins, DU is going to have to find new purposes. I think one of them ought to be doing what should have been done under Clinton and wasn't -- exposing the network of right-wingers and the vaguely named groups they operate under in order to appear as non-partisan experts, developing the media connections to make sure the wingnuts can't keep passing as mainstream, forming rapid response teams to keep right-wing memes from becoming conventional wisdom.

DU could be a center for something like that -- but not as long as the sink-without-a-trace-in-three-hours setup of LBN and GD keeps us from coordinating our efforts.

[George_S]

36. Research Forum

Great idea. Hope someone can answer it. The research and rapid response teams of the right gives them a big and yet unchallenged advantage.

[AnIndependentTexan]

16. Also read this

Reason I think we were on the right trail is in less then a day a spy had reported by to the crushkerry people about it. They tried to say we were stretching things so far. Funny if we were truly stretching what we know why would they feel the need to link to the thread and trash it before I had even finished writing a lot of the stuff down?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=897089&mesg_id=897089

[George_S]

31. crushkerry.com = Patrick Hynes

Patrick Hynes is a Senior Account Executive with the Republican consulting firm Marsh Copsey + Scott. He is also the proprietor of www.crushkerry.com.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6485

Whois Marsh Copsey & Scott?

The same as:

Russo Marsh and Rogers

Russo Marsh and Rogers (RM+R) is a political public relations firm based in Sacramento, California.

In June 2004, RM+R formed a front organization called Move America Forward. Its stated aim was to "to stand up and support the brave men and women of our Armed Forces" <1>. However its chief preoccupation seemed to be a campaign against the showing of Fahrenheit 9/11 (movie 2004) in movie theaters.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Russo_Marsh_and_Rogers

[George_S]

32. Whois Hynes?

A senior executive from a leading GOP consulting firm, uses a web log called CrushKerry.com to discuss campaigns to suppress black and liberal voters through dirty tricks. Patrick Hynes a senior account executive with Marsh, Copsey and Scott operates the CrushKerry blog.

The author of the blog is anonymous but the Surreal Café leaned that Hynes was the proprietor of the web log in an ongoing investigation of the GOP’s use of Internet blogs. Surreal Café has uncovered a network of GOP blogs to promote unethical or illegal dirty tricks campaigns to suppress the vote on election day. Most of the blogs are run by GOP operatives anonymously.

Hynes discussed a dirty trick that would create a fake antiwar organization to spread the rumor that Kerry was planning a “Lyndon Johnson style plan to escalate the war in Iraq.” Hynes suggested that planting that false information in key liberal districts would suppress the turnout of Kerry voters.

Hynes also played the race card by suggesting that black communities in key swings states be bombarded with information the information that John Kerry opposes slavery reparations. Hynes believes that black voters would lose interest in voting for Kerry if the GOP repeatedly reinforced Kerry’s as an anti-black candidate.

http://www.surrealcafe.motime.com/ (scroll about 3/4 down)

[starroute]

34. A little more relating to Patrick Hynes

I Googled him a bit for a thread the other day that died just as I started getting going.:( Hynes is not just a random blogger -- he's got some serious Republican connections.

For example, I found a list of Marsh Copsey + Scott's clients at The Daily Kos:
http://dailykos.com/story/2004/8/20/112017/125

National Political Committees

Republican National Committee
National Republican Senatorial Committee
National Republican Congressional Committee

State Political Committees

California Republican Party
New York Republican Party
Washington State Republican Party
Oregon Republican Party
Florida Republican Party
Maryland Republican Party
Montana Republican Party
New Hampshire Republican Party
Illinois Republican Party
Vermont GOP House Campaign Committee
Connecticut Republican House Campaign Committee


I also found an interesting column which appeared in a New Hampshire paper in 2002. Hynes was serving as press secretary for a New Hampshire congressional candidate while working for Russo, Marsh, Copsey and Scott down in Washington. The columnist found this odd and was skeptical of Hynes' denial that he was operating on behalf of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/2002news/08272002/col_capi/21142.htm

[KittyWampus]

20. Has Anyone Investigated CBS Employees Who Worked W/Memogate?

it seems to me a pretty good bet that there was a mole in CBS.

[Geek_Girl]

26. The trail to Rove from Stone

From the charts I would say the trail from Stone to Rove is through Mike Krempasky who seems to be heading the rather-gate smear campaign and who was a participant in the Florida Recount Riot in 2000. Now my only questions is how did the rumor of Roger Stone being involved come about and why was it reported in the New York Post? How does Roger Stone link into all this other than he just another nasty political operative.

[George_S]

27. We need a well-written and informative letter to the editor

Take this, for example:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/26/INGAG8T2FT1.DTL

We need something to counter attack that.

Better yet, would be to send it first.

Any suggestions?

[AnIndependentTexan]

30. Host of democratic underground? We need them to pin all the information

Is there anyway that we can get all the information pinned together? There is a lot of information here and some of us are trying to put things together. However, we are losing so much information each time that a post slips away. Can the host of democratic underground have a thread or some web base form of everything together so we can get a bigger picture of what is going on? This needs to stay up where everyone can access it and add new information.

[vetwife]

37. Free Republic has turned this into DOJ..and into Druggie Rush

Be careful what you say. Be sure to document. Someone over there has over 30 posts here and posting here as well. Whoever the Freeper is has infiltrated this thread. You must be closer than you know. I suggest on the really deep stuff PM it and blind them ! And be sure nt to PM to the Freeper. He/She was bragging that they have a lot of posts here to gather info. Go over there and check it out !