Um...because they can't be perfectly duplicated with no effort in MS Word?
You are missing my point....... the point isn't that The SVBT docs are authentic, and the Bush Guard docs aren't.. the point is is that many in the electorate won't bother to make a distinction, and will just treat it all as white noise.
Remember folks, this is politics. The truth is not what matters its the perception, most people aren't paying that close attention. Big bogus attack documents show up against Kerry... so next set of old documents suddenly "found" are branded as tit for tat and white noise.
Remember, elections are not won and lost on the base generally, its the folks in the middle that make the difference, and in any small percentage that you can move, helps you.
Do you know the average response rate for junk mailings? Less than 1/2 of one percent is considered GOOD! These marketers know this going in, they know if they mail out 1000 pieces of targeted marketing they might get 5 responses and maybe 2 will result in a sale... yet they survive and thrive on those 2 out of 1000! Politics is no different. If they muddy the water and turn it into "white noise" for the casual swing voter even if its only a few percentage of that swing voter group, its served its purpose.
If this even now turns all documents that get released into "white noise" it won't matter their authenticity or not.. it will just become white noise, tit for tat partisan attacks, and ignored. That's how it can be percieved.
I just can't find any reason for Rather and CBS to stand behind this thing, other than that. NBC blew up trucks for a story, when caught they came clean... they intentionally lied and staged things at Food Lion... etc etc etc... But when caught, they always came clean. To stand by the story when its obviously a fraud, and when you are taking a pounding for it, has to have some sort of alterior motive. I'm not convinced that that motive is purely Rather's ego. Rather's made his money, he could have retired at any time.. and one OOPS at the twighlight of his career wouldn't have undermined him in terms of his legacy... provided he just come out and admit it. By sticking by the story, to me, it seems there are alterior motives here.