Forgeries: CBS and the New York Times

Those Dan Rather memos—purportedly from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's personal file, yes, them—they're not forgeries.

Their provenance is unknown, so far. There is speculation in the Kerry camp that Karl Rove, tutored, no doubt, by Mossad and the neocons, planted these forgeries, but we will leave this implicit admission for another Conning Tower.

It no longer matters whether Mr. Rather expressly concedes the memos are forgeries. That the memos were phony was proved last week when, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs produced an identical copy of the 18 August 1973 item, identical pixel for pixel, by using Microsoft Word, Times New Roman font. (I don't mean to slight other valuable blogs, Powerline blog and computer typography expert Joseph M. Newcomer and Buckhead of FreeRepublic.com, particularly, who contributed mightily.)

You can disregard all the other innumerable details that show the memos were fakes because they must have been produced on a computer using Word and Times New Roman. No typewriter, nothing on this planet generated those documents other than a computer running Microsoft Word using New Times Roman. Do I need to remind you that no such program existed in 1972 and 1973?

Rather knew what every human bean who doesn't walk dragging his knuckles on the ground knows, that no document expert can authenticate a photocopy of a document let alone a fax copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, and so on and on. You can't inspect the original paper and the ink. You can't tell whether a signature was written by putting pen to paper or by photocopying from another document.

Run your document progressively through the Xerox machine 20 times and you'll blur most of the signs of cutting and pasting. No document expert ever authenticated the Rather photocopy forgeries prior to last week's Rather broadcast. Nor can any expert do that now, (but adjudging it a phony, a forgery, is of course doable from a copy).

Look closely and you'll discover that Rather has abandoned defending the authenticity of his documents. In this, Rather is following the lead of the New York Times. No, it's not an express declaration that the memos are forgeries. It's a manifestation of the Jayson Blair approach to journalism.

Under Jayson's rules, a reporter can stay in Brooklyn and dateline a story from West Virginia. Hell, he's been to West Virginia and knows what it's like. He can quote a source even if hasn't actually interviewed him—he knows the essentials of what the source would say. Why bother the busy fellow for face time when the result is the same?

There is much about the Jayson Blair approach to journalism that is civilized, adult, and accords with postmodern quasi-ethical notions. That it was rejected emphatically last year by Prince Sulzberger, Publisher of the Times, who said it caused the Times to sink to a 152 year low is no reason why the Times cannot embrace it now. And it has. And CBS has followed suit.

After a full week of grimly refusing to face up to the compelling evidence of forgery presented by pajama-clad bloggers—riffraff, undisciplined, unshaven louts, you know—the Times interviewed Marian Knox, Col. Killian's former secretary, and excreted a story under this headline: Memos on Bush Are Fake but Accurate, Typist Says.

There was no hint in the Times story that Mrs. Knox believes that George W. Bush stole the 2000 election, that he was "selected not elected." A week after his introduction of the Killian forgeries, Mr. Rather played Mrs. Knox as his trump card. It was a forgery but truth was in it, Mr. Bush is scum, said Mrs. Knox. Mr. Rather basked in Mrs. Knox's eerie glow.

Here are the latest DUmmie FUnnies on the subject of Memogate. BTW, it is getting a lot harder now to mine these nuggest because even the DUmmies are embarrassed by this plus the deloooosional paranoia by many over there that it is all a KARL ROVE plot. Therefore there are currently far fewer posts on this topic. You can see my own comments enclosed in the [brackets].

The Republican talking points for the past day-and-a-half has been: Rather needs to be fired. Some couch it within the context of CBS's credibility, but the bottom line is the same. They want to end Rather's career. "Here's how we play hardball in Texas," etc. To do so would send a chill down the spin of any investigative reporter that came sniffing around the administration in the future. A clear attempt to quiet the so-called free press.

[Yet another rightwing plot to keep progressive reporters from using honest "forgery" to attack the fascists!!!]

I wish Rather would do a story on the kangaroo court he's being subjected to.

["This is Dan Rather reporting and tonight I am doing a special story about the rightwing cabal attacking me for merely using forged documents. COURAGE!"]

If firing a newsperson gives a news organization credibility ... Faux News would have to fire their entire organization.

[I say FIRE everybody at FOX News and replace them with experienced forgers!]

Rather will fight and win. Let them waste their time and energy. He is the top journalist and doesn't have to kiss anyone's ass.

[Dan already has your head up his ass.]

Look. Rather could clear all this up in five minutes. He could: 1) provide the original document and have it examined by a panel of neutral experts or 2) At least provide a generalized description of the source. ("Sources close to ____________") would suffice nicely. This method is used all the time to provide information without divulging the identify of the source, yet for some reason, CBS won't even do that.

[What? Do I detect a slight bit of rationality on this DUmmie Board? I say BAN this poster!!!]

Well, since Rather and CBS seem to be the last hold-out of "fair and balanced", it's no wonder that the conservatives are screaming for action. I STILL think that CBS was set up. And it smells like Rove to me.

[Absolutely! Karl Rove secretly flew to Austin, TX in an SR=71 spy plane. Then he faxed forged documents to CBS from the local Kinkos and flew back to Washington without anybody knowing he was gone. Devious. Sneaky. A typical ROVIAN plot!!!]

I wrote a letter of support to Dan Rather and recieved a nice responce from CBS: Thank you for taking the time to write. Your support is appreciated. As you can imagine, we've been inundated with negative emails. It's refreshing to hear from a viewer such as yourself. We strive for the highest level of journalistic integrity and will continue to do so, no matter what the cost. A free society demands free, unmuzzled media expression. Selena, CBS Evening News

["Thank you for taking the time to write. Your blind support is appreciated. As you can imagine we've been inundated with negative e-mails from rightwing fascists. It is refreshing to to hear from a clueless viewer such as yourself. We strive for the highest level of journalistic forgery and will continue to do so, no matter what the cost to our veracity. A free society demands free unmuzzled media forgery. Dan R.---SeeBS Evening News."]

Dan Rather knows who Karl Rove is. The biggest weakness with a person like Rove is that they always assume everyone else is an idiot. I wonder if Karl isn't the fly in the web this time, too.

[And Dan Rather probably knows that Karl Rove is the evil genius behind Global Warming. Our Danny Boy is on to all the devious Rovian plots. There's no fooling him!]

Rather is going to raise the ratings on 60MIN 11. And he couldn't find a better way as far as I am concerned.

[That was a genius idea of Rather to use forged documents to boost his ratings. Way to go, Dan!]

Maybe it's because I've watched a poker tournament, but I think Dan Rather is playing a little "Texas Hold 'Em" with everyone. In the face of all the controversy with the documents, he's been suspiciously calm. I don't believe he's dealt his trump cards yet. Either he CAN prove that the docs are genuine, or he can prove that someone tried to set him up. Or maybe he has additional evidence that will definitively seal Bush's fate.

[Or maybe he is waiting to prove that the Hitler Diaries are real or...or maybe Dan Rather is just waiting for you to pull your head out of his butt.]

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