Mark Cuban

Radar editor Maer Roshan said that he is standing by his magazine's story that former CBS producer Mary Mapes is going to work with Dan Rather at HDNet.

Both Ms. Mapes and HDNet's owner, Mark Cuban, denied the arrangement today "The reporter, who's a trusted one here, did speak to her," Mr. Roshan said this afternoon. "We first got that information about a month ago. It could conceivably be that [Ms. Mapes] doesn't remember. It could also be that maybe that this was going to be official and.... You know? Things happen in a month. I know that this information when we got it was true. It was confirmed by Ms. Mapes." Mr. Roshan further claimed that his reporter—identified only as "FI Staff"—had exchanged e-mails with Ms. Mapes. In them, he said, she suggested people that Radar might hire.

"The idea of making up out of whole cloth a story like that," he said. "Of all the stories to make up that doesn't seem like one that naturally leaps to mind." Reached again at her Dallas home, Ms. Mapes again denied ever having had plans to work for HDNet. "I'm not sure what he's talking about," she said.

She also reiterated that she had never spoken to a Radar reporter. "I've not talked to anyone who called as a reporter from Radar to discuss anything like that."

Ms. Mapes did, however, clarify her position on her familiarity with Radar, the magazine. She knew of its existence. She just had trouble finding the Web site, she said. —Rebecca Dana

Mary Mapes, the former CBS producer chiefly responsible for that network's flawed 2004 report on President Bush's National Guard service, is not joining her former boss, Dan Rather, at the cable channel HDNet. Asked whether she had been offered a job at the network or ever would be, HDNet owner Mark Cuban told the Observer in an e-mail: "Not true. No idea where it came from. As far as the future, I would doubt it."

On Sept. 5, the newly-relaunched Radar website reported that Ms. Mapes would be producing documentaries for the network. The item quoted her as telling a Radar reporter she was "thrilled to be on board" and that "Mark Cuban has told Dan, 'I don't give a damn about ratings. Let's just break news and have some fun breaking balls.'"

Reached Tuesday afternoon at her Dallas home, Ms. Mapes said she was not joining HDNet, had never spoken to a Radar reporter and had never heard of Radar Online. "It's not true," she said, "and I'm entirely puzzled by the quotes they have from me. No one's talked to me. I didn't say that." The story appeared in the Fresh Intelligence section of Radar Online. "They totally made it up," Ms. Mapes. "It's hilarious." Radar editor Maer Roshan and Fresh Intelligence editor Chris Tennant did not immediately return calls for comment. --Rebecca Dana

I know I'm supposed to like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. He's a free spirit. He's producing feel-good movies, like Akeelah and the Bee and Good Night, and Good Luck. He has an interesting blog that is sometimes deadon:

99pct of blogs are about what someone has to say. 99 pct of traditional media is about making money. Which is exactly what leads to the resentment between bloggers and traditional media and why blogging on traditional media websites will find it tough to be successful.

For another thing, Cuban is rich, and when I chanced to go to synagogue last week they read from Leviticus in a way that hit me between the eyes: 'Do not ... show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly." (For I tend to favor the poor.)

But Cuban is losing me. Last week he complained about NBA officiating on his blog, then went out on the court to yell at the referees. When Fort Worth columnist Randy Galloway wrote that he is a whiner, Cuban made Galloway out to be an alcoholic and lit on whining as a way of promoting himself for several paragraphs:

When I got to Indiana University, I whined that the classes they wanted me to take were'nt enough of a challenge, so I snuck into the MBA program and took graduate level statistics when I was a freshman. Then I took other MBA level classes as a freshman and sophmore, which gave me the confidence to compete at any level.

Yes, the meritocracy is better than the aristocracy. But at least the aristocrats understood they were privileged. They knew that life wasn't fair economically; they didn't believe they had beaten everyone else to the spot, fair and square. So they had social prohibitions against acting like jerks.