The $37,900 Question - CBiaS reward on the rise

Defeat JohnJohn ^ | 12 Sep 2004 | John K, Addis

[sdkhaki]

The $37,900 Question

In the past few days, more than 50,000 unique visitors have stumbled upon this website, due to the national attention surrounding the infamous Killian memos. Most of these visitors came after my initial offering of a $10,000 cashiers check to the first person who could exactly (and reasonably) reproduce the memos on technology available in 1972. While there has been some good debate as to the nature of what constitutes "reasonable", the general consensus seems to be this: the only "typewriter" which could create documents that look like the Killian memos is the IBM Selectric Composer typesetting machine, and that machine has been deemed inadequate to have created the memos by the nation's leading authorities on the Selectric line. At this time, after careful analysis of all available evidence, the belief that the CBS memos were created in 1972 cannot be rationally supported with any degree of intellectual honesty.

Amazingly, my email was flooded with not only people trying to claim the prize, but individuals who so strongly shared my belief that the documents were forgeries that they too, pledged significant amounts of money to the challenge. As of now, including my initial $10,000, the amount pledged stands at $37,900.

These were not just idle "me too"s. Some people sent financial information, their home address and phone number for verification, the address and phone number of their employer, their checking account routing numbers, and even at least one social security number!

Of course, I cannot assure that all or even any of the dozens and dozens of "contributions" would ever be honored (other than my own). But I am very humbled and flattered at the offering, and in the unlikely event someone does satisfy the requirements of the challenge, they will receive a list of the names and addresses of all others who publicly offered funds as well. (At this time, if anyone would like to be removed from the pledge list, contact me as soon as possible at defeatjohnjohn@hotmail.com.).

As the firestorm has wound down a touch, this site will eventually be getting back to the more pressing issue of keeping John Kerry out of the White House. :) I have therefore started http://stop60minutes.com/ to chronicle and catalog all the information we've collected here, including information about the monetary challenge.

[sdkhaki]

Still no takers. What a surprise.

[EternalHope]

Good work.

(And, obviously, your money is NOT at risk.)

[Socratic]

"Still no takers."

Perhaps Mr. Rather would like to take up the challenge and offer his winnings to charity.