The AP: Mary Mapes "believes that CBS was more interested in protecting itself than finding out the truth behind her story."

Vanity Fair published an excerpt from her upcoming book today. In it, Mapes says that "no one was happier" than executives at CBS owner Viacom to receive an independent panel's condemnation of her and three colleagues for their role in Memogate.

"Mapes contended that CBS and Viacom, which actively lobby in Washington on media ownership and decency standards, did not want an angry Bush administration making vindictive decisions that would cost them money.

The panel's examination of the report "read more like a prosecutorial brief than an independent investigation," Mapes writes. "Now [Viacom executives] could present themselves to the Bush administration as victims of irresponsible, out-of-control journalists, not as an operation that was actually doing some tough reporting." A Viacom spokesperson disagrees, of course. Here's the rest of the must-read...