Coincidental Familia Dysfunction?

An odd series of family spats have erupted in the wake of Rathergate. Now if I were of the black helicopter variety, I might think that there was some kind of underlying conspiracy at the bottom of these arguments. So far we have:

The Killian family - If we were to believe the reporting done by CBS, the first family fallout was with the Killians. By using the TANG memos, CBS, in essence, had Lt. Col. Jerry Killian stating that GWB was a slacker, shirker, and recipient of special favors (caveat-you must believe the memos are authentic for above proposition to be valid). Very shortly after the 60 Minutes II segment aired, several members of the late Lt. Col.'s family spoke out against the "statements" supposedly said by him (and in essence, him). Son Gary Killian claimed that his father had had nothing but high praise for the future president and this was echoed by his stepmother who was married to Lt. Col. Killian when he passed away in 1984.

UPDATE: The Killian family has now called for an apology from CBS. (perhaps for creating a family rift?)

The Barnes Family - In the now infamous 60 Minutes report, Ben Barnes, former Texas Lt. Gov., claimed that he had pulled strings in 1968 to get GWB into the TANG. Not long after, Barnes' daughter, Amy Barnes Stites, called a WBAP radio talk show hosted by Monica Crowley to dispute her fathers claims. When asked if she believed her father had lied, Barnes Stites replied:

"Yes, I do. I absolutely do. And I think he is doing it for purely political, opportunistic reasons - trying to get John Kerry elected and trying to make Bush look like the bad person. ...he's trying to promote his book that he's got coming out."

The Mapes Family - Now we all know that Mary Mapes is the "mother" of the the 60 Minutes memo story. She is also a person who seems to have connections with members of the Kerry/Edwards '04 Campaign. It is relatively easy to deduce Ms. Mapes feelings towards GWB. But it seems that there is some friction between her and her father. Don Mapes, who recently spoke on Seattle's KVI radio, believes that there is a political agenda behind his daughter's work. He said:

"I'm really ashamed of what my daughter has become. She's a typical liberal. She went into journalism with an ax to grind, and that was to promote radical feminism."

He went on to say:

"When I heard about 60 Minutes, I suspected she would be the producer of the show"...

Now I know these things may all be simply coincidental but we may have to wait to get Oliver Stone's take on it before we can be sure.