Posted on 09/09/2004 2:59:00 PM PDT by MindBender26
As many of you I have met know, I'm an old CBS network system newsie.
This is a little insight into Dan Rather, the CBS system, and the current forgeries in particular.
First the forgeries. The amazing thing isn't just that 60 Minutes put forged documents on the air to attack President Bush. The amazing thing is that 60 Minutes put such poor quality forgeries on the air at all.
Any good documents forger could have produced a set of letters that would have passed muster. This forger did a horrible job, the forgeries were easilly decectable, and still 60 Minutes put them on the air.
The bottom line here is Rather and the rest of the 60 Minutes crew so very much wanted them to be true. They knew what story conclusion they wanted, and worked to get it.
There have been news forgeries in the past; the phony Howard Hughes book, the film of the Italian cement plant passed off as smoundering Chernobyl, but this is much worse.
Here there was a specific intended victim, and plenty of time to validate the documents. When they aired the cement plant video, they needed to get it on the air immediately, ahead of the other networks. The only people who really got hurt were the CBS staffers who bought the bogus film for $10,000.
Here, with no deadline, the attacked and hurt a President in the middle of a cmapaign.
Next is Rather himself. A few years ago, another network anchor personally told me that Rather was, in his words, "off his rocker." He then went on to describe a couple of unreported Rather actions that were way outside the behavioral norms for lucid people.
Rather can lie too, and he does so very well. In one of his books, he tells the story of how, one Sunday morning, at a small radio station in Texas, he left the station while a 30 minute Sunday Sermonette transcription was playing. Eventually, the record got to the line, "..... and if you don't follow the way of the Lord, you will reap the wasges of sin and go to Hell.
Thenm supposedly, the transscription record skipped, so all the listeners heard, over and over and over was "go to Hell (skip) go to Hell! (skip) go to Hell....."
Problem is, that story has been told by every disk jockey for 75 years.... and the odds are miniscule that it happened to Rather.
There are many other events, but Rather is not a "normal" man.... He obviously wanted to be the news again, rather than just reporting it.
Brit Hume just teased his 6 pm show, noting that "questions have arised about the authenticity of the documents". So Fox is on the case.
I would love to know if there is anything Ashcroft or Michael Powell can do regarding CBS's broadcast license if there appears a likelihood that these were forgeries. We need to sock it back to these jerks.
What I want to know is when will CBS apologize or even acknowledge that they publicized forged documents to attack the President?
When?
What a Piece of Sh*t "news" organization.
BRIT HUME SET TO BRING IT ON "SPECIAL REPORT"......."QUESTIONS RE: AUTHENTICITY OF THE DOCUMENTS ARISE..........GO BRIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JINX.................lol ;^)
I really like Brit Hume. He doesn't put up with nonsense from the Loons.
I want to bust open the beers right now, but my wife won't let me till tomorrow. sigh
How did Danny mess up JFK's assasination story?
Really. I missed the first few minutes of the program and just sat down.
Interesting.
Which is, as we all know-- including liberals -- the number 1 news outlet in America. People will see this story, rest assured, and the rest of the media ill have to play catch up.
>>>Brit Hume just teased his 6 pm show, noting that "questions have arised about the authenticity of the documents". So Fox is on the case.
Perhaps Brian Wilson got the e-mail I sent him and ran with it...Cool.
Edward R. Murrow, is that you!?
5:07 CST..........BRIT REPORT UP NEXT ON FORGED DOCS!!!!!!!!!!
So is the Washington Times
Coming up after this break....man, I am having a great time!
I agree, Brit is the very best. I am livid that he isn't hosting a debate.
Its still 2:10 Alaska time. Please fill us in on what Brit has to say.
Jim Angle doing report...................
Clifford Irving anyone?
I've been listening to this story all day long. What I don't understand is why would anyone who had something like this about President George Bush wait until now to announce it. Why didn't this come out in the election of 2000? Why isn't anyone asking these questions?
Kewl! Thanks!
It wasn't as powerful as I thought it would be. What i want to see is the superimposition of the memo over a word document. That will change minds. Tune in tomorrow. They are just getting their ducks in a row.
Dan Rather is a scum. He is a has been trying to make a name for himself.
But the Dimwit Dems love him. You'll never change that! My coworker is already defending it. Saying... well there's always so much untruth on TV I don't know why they think this is any big deal.
Remember the story from a couple of years back where they were supposedly comparing the IQ of a bunch of Presidents and supposedly "proved" that Bush was dumb?
Remember how every liberal rag ran it without checking to find whether the supposed organization making the comparison even existed -- and didn't?
Same thing here, I guess. They liked it so much, they wanted it to be true so much, that they didn't even bother doing the most basic checks.
The Democrats' press really crippled themselves with this and the Barnes thing.
For the rest of the election cycle the first reaction people are going to have to negative stories on Bush is going to be that the media is merely lying again.
They do have other documents from this same guy, from that year. Documents where he is commending the President on his performance and qualities.
They should compare it to that one.
You're the man in your house... and you have your wife's permission to say so? :)
bttt
Next on Brit's show they'll discuss the content of the memos.
Make sure you keep posting updates. I'm in Tokyo so I'm depending on you guys to keep me updated.
Byron York on with Brit.
Brit starts with "Let's presume authentic, what is new, if anything"
York says we knew he had not taken physical, knew he had been grounded. Did not know an actual order was given for physical.
The Boston Globe report that claims Bush was supposed to report to base in Boston is wrong, York says. Bush's honorable disharge issued before the date in question.
York: Explaining what the documents purport to be and says there are definitely odd aspects to them.
York: Killian appears to be a Jekyll and Hyde character when you compare tone of these new memos with the other records of glowing reviews.
York now addressing the font business and the superscript problems. Says these questions have been raised and so far their info is the typing not possible. Brit says one of their producers did a typing in Word and got the reproduction others here have produced.
York spoke to nationally recognized expert who said this was produced on a typewriter, but other experts said no. But the expert who said typewriter possible was flummoxed over the superscript. The expert had no explanation for that.
They showed close-up the superscritped th
That's convincing.
Expert says that cannot be explained.
This thing just got blown wide open. CBS Hang On To Your Hat!
PING to #38
Hume mentioned that an intern typed it out in word, and it created an exact duplicate of the memo. BUSTED!
Nice summary, Cyn. You have fast fingers! i'll bet you could crank 'em out even on an IBM Executive!
You did a good transcription yourself.
And I will say that in the 70's I DID type on a Selectric! LOL
(Thank goodness for computers...but Selectrics did have the correction key. I'm fast but make typos)
1. Dan Rather is a freak: This is the link to the 'What's the Frequency" story
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010619.html
2. I hope Bush can somehow use this in the debates to strike back and demonstrate the complicity of the MSM in the vile smear campaign.
Bush should come out with something like "Old Media outlets like CBS are easily fooled by crude forgeries..." draws a nice comparison to his "Old Europe/New Europe" comparison.
Dan Rather's boss is Andrew Heyward, President of CBS News. Load his desk with Fax's for tomorrow morning. Tell him to get rid of Cap'n Dan and whoever on 60 Minutes is working for the Kerry campaign.
Andrew Heyward -- CBS News
Title: President
Department: Headquarters
Phone: (212) 975-4321
Fax: (212) 975-1893
Address: 524 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
I sometimes feel a bit nostalgic for my old IBM Selectric II. They are as scarce as hens teeth in Japan so the chance of me finding one at a second hand shop are nil.
Pity... as much as I love keyboards and computers, there are some things -- filling out forms, addressing envelopes, etc., that are just plain easier on a typewriter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.