Truth Page #3

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MURPHY:

Great to see you again. Abu Ghraib

was phenomenal.

As they all take a seat.

JOSH:

So no big preamble, we love you, we

love what you've done here - let's

talk about the new season. What are

you thinking?

Mary flips open her notebook.

MARY:

I got something maybe for the

election. Houston businessman named

Bill White claims he has documents

that the Bin Laden family were

investors in Arbusto.

JOSH:

Bush's oil company?

MARY:

Could just be lots of sound and fury,

but Vanity Fair's into it too. That

whole time period for Bush is funky.

JOSH:

Funky how?

MARY:

I did some work on it in 2000. You

know Ben Barnes?

JOSH:

No.

MARY:

Old Texas Pol.

(MORE)

15.

MARY (CONT'D)

Barnes says when he was Speaker of

the Texas House in '68, Sid Adger,

this big oilman, comes into his office

and asks for help getting young George

Bush into the National Guard as a

pilot. Poppy Bush at this point is

a Congressman and Barnes figures he

can use all the connections he can

get, so he says he called General

Rose, who runs the Texas Air National

Guard, and gets Bush a slot.

JOSH:

Barnes told you this?

MARY:

Completely off the record, but he's

been dining out on the story for

years. Then I talk to Buck Staudt,

who was Bush's squadron commander.

He starts screaming at me about how

Barnes is full of sh*t, because

everybody knows that he's the one

who pulled the strings to get Bush

into the Guard, not Barnes.

Josh laughs.

MARY (CONT'D)

Politics in Texas. It's the

intergalactic capital of sh*t happens.

Anyway while Bush is in the Guard,

he meets a guy named James Bath and

they become running buddies. After

they get out, Bath, with no resume

to speak of, becomes chief financial

representative for the Bin Laden

Family's interests in Texas. Bush

starts up Arbusto and Bath writes

him a $50,000 check.

JOSH:

Which your guy White claims is Bin

Laden money.

(off her nod)

Okay, run it down. But if we go

with it, we have to go early; we

can't October surprise them.

16.

MARY:

If you're into this, I'd like to

bring in some other people.

MURPHY:

Who?

Mary reaches into her bag and hands them a list...

EXT. ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY -- DAY

COLONEL CHARLES stands in full dress uniform at the funeral

of a VETERAN as a flag is laid over a coffin. OVER THIS:

MARY (O.S.)

Colonel Roger Charles, worked Abu

Ghraib for us. Naval Academy grad.

Two tours in Vietnam, then the

Pentagon. When he's not working for

us, he's trying to get better armor

for combat troops in Iraq.

JOSH:

Who else?

INT. S.M.U. CLASSROOM -- DAY

LUCY SCOTT lectures a class of journalism students...

MARY (O.S.)

Since Dana's on maternity leave, I'd

like Lucy Scott to run point. She's

a CBS veteran, journalism professor

in Dallas.

INT. JOSH HOWARD'S OFFICE -- DAY

MURPHY:

What about this man... Mike Smith?

INT. CRESCENT COURT HOTEL -- DALLAS, TEXAS -- NIGHT

A posh COCKTAIL PARTY. A long haired shaggy guy stands by a

huge potted plant, feeding rum-and-cokes to a clearly drunk

actor. Pad and pen out. This is MIKE SMITH (20's).

MARY (O.S.)

Mikey cut his teeth working for Molly

Ivins and was a researcher for us on

(MORE)

17.

MARY (O.S.) (CONT'D)

this in 2000. Last I heard, he was

working as a stringer for People.com,

sneaking into cocktail parties to

find out who's sleeping with who...

SMITH:

When you say "sport-f***ing", do you

mean he's, like, putting it to her

for fun, or that he's actively

attempting to compete at it?

There is a TAP on his shoulder. A BURLY SECURITY GUARD.

BURLY SECURITY GUARD

Sir, we have to ask you to leave.

SMITH:

Listen, I appreciate where you're

coming from, you have your job to

do, but I am protected by my First

Amendment rights, so, you know,

respectfully, go f*** yourself.

The Security Guard rolls his eyes and looks to his goons.

BURLY SECURITY GUARD

The hard way.

EXT. CRESCENT COURT HOTEL -- NIGHT

Onlookers scatters as the goons BODILY CARRY a SCREAMING

Mike Smith out the front door of the hotel:

SMITH:

A free press is all that stands

between you roided out motherfuckers

and anarchy! At-tic-a! At-tic-a!

As they toss him into a FOUNTAIN...

INT. JOSH HOWARD'S OFFICE -- DAY

Back to the scene. Mary gives them a smile.

MARY:

It's a crack team. Trust me.

18.

INT. CBS NEWS DALLAS -- LOBBY -- MORNING

A small two story building. Mary walks toward the staircase.

Smith sits on the stairs. Rumpled clothes and hair.

SMITH:

You really gonna do it this time?

Your evil corporate overlords will

let you?

MARY:

Good to see you too, Mikey.

SMITH:

I hear Heyward's talking about closing

foreign bureaus, moving in more of a

bullshit "infotainment" direction.

MARY:

Where'd you hear that?

SMITH:

I'm a researcher, I research.

MARY:

They won't touch the news division

as long as Dan's there.

SMITH:

Dan's not gonna be there forever.

They'll figure a way to get the Old

Man out of the chair eventually-

MARY:

You've never even met him.

SMITH:

Doesn't mean his time hasn't come.

Why did he get into journalism anyway

if he's not gonna do tough stories?

Mary looks at him.

MARY:

How you doing, Mikey?

SMITH:

I'm eating ramen three meals a day

and stealing cable, I need a job.

19.

MARY:

Come meet everybody.

INT. CBS NEWS -- DALLAS BUREAU CONFERENCE ROOM -- DAY

A series of MILITARY FILES spread out across the table.

Lucy Scott and Roger Charles, working as Smith and Mary enter.

The former Marine raises an eyebrow at the newcomer.

COLONEL CHARLES:

Oh, good. You brought me a hippie.

MARY:

This is Mike Smith, he worked this

with me in 2000. He has no social

graces whatsoever.

SMITH:

It's true.

COLONEL CHARLES:

Your Arbusto tip is for sh*t. Bin

Laden money never got near Bush.

SMITH:

So what am I doing here?

MARY:

We found something else. Bush's

time in the Guard. There are some...

gaps.

COLONEL CHARLES:

You are looking at George W. Bush's

entire Texas Air National Guard file.

SMITH:

You mean what's left of it, right?

(realizing)

You're doing a paper trail.

The Colonel picks up a file.

COLONEL CHARLES:

What we have starts here - May 1968,

bloodiest month of the conflict.

Bush is accepted to the Texas Air

National Guard for flight training.

20.

MARY:

If you believe Ben Barnes, he got

Bush onto the waiting list.

COLONEL CHARLES:

If there even was a waiting list.

Some people say yes, some people say

no. That one General...

He snaps his fingers, trying to remember.

SMITH:

Belisario Flores?

Colonel Charles looks at Smith - not bad.

COLONEL CHARLES:

Former head of the Texas Guard, he

said there was a waiting list, over

a hundred people on it.

LUCY:

So Bush jumped the list.

COLONEL CHARLES:

We have no document showing any kind

of waiting list.

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