of the segment". The panel also stated that it "cannot conclude that a political agenda at 60 Minutes Wednesday drove either the timing of the airing of the segment or its content." Mapes was terminated by CBS in January 2005. Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard's deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Mary Murphy. Mapes said she did not think her actions were faultless, but she stood by the story. She said that the authenticity of the documents had been corroborated by an unnamed key source and that journalists often have to rely on photo-copied documents as the basis for verifying a story. Moreover, Burkett admitted lying to Mapes and the 60 Minutes team regarding the source of the documents. In an interview with The Washington Post, Mapes said Karl Rove was "an inspirational figure" for the critics of the segment. Rove called Mapes' work "the gift that keeps on giving" due to the story's lurid foundations and the apparent boost it gave to President Bush during his reelection campaign. Some Democratic critics of Bush, such as Terry McAuliffe and Maurice Hinchey, suggested that the memos originated from the Bush campaign with the purpose of discrediting the media's unveiling of Bush's National Guard service and changing the conversation from subjects like the Iraq War, singling out Rove, Ralph Reed and Roger Stone. Rove and Stone denied involvement. Book and film adaptation In 2005, Mapes' book Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power was published. It was adapted into the 2015 film Truth, about the Killian Documents Controversy, starring Cate Blanchett as Mapes and Robert Redford as Dan Rather. Writing career In the aftermath of the Rathergate scandal, Mapes started work as a writer and a consultant, contributing to the news magazine The Nation in 2007 and 2008. In the May 2016 edition of D Magazine, Mapes wrote a story about Henry Wade's 1954 conviction of Tommy Lee Walker. References Further reading External links Part 1 of Democracy Now! interview with Mapes. Part 2 of Democracy Now! interview Mary Mapes interview on The Young Turks Exhibits and Appendices for the Thornburgh-Boccardi Report 1950s births Living people People from Dallas University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni American television news producers American women journalists Killian documents controversy Journalists from