FreeRepublic Featured in Newseum Exhibit on RatherGate

1 May 2008 | kburi

[BufordP]

On 4/11/08, The Newseum opened its new quarters in Washington, DC. I was specifically interested in an exhibit in the Internet, TV and Radio Gallery. The exhibit was "Bias at CBS" and it featured the September 2004 "60 Minutes II" Dan Rather report aimed at discrediting President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. This 9/04 report was meant to hurt Bush's re-election chances in November, 2004.

Comments among FReepers quickly exposed inconsistencies in the documents and led to bloggers on the internet exposing the report as deeply flawed, as well as using forged documents. These inconsistencies ultimately forced CBS to retract its story.

The exhibit describes "how conservative blogs flexed their muscle and played a most significant role in the 2004 election "by discrediting documents used in Rather's "60 Minutes II' report.

Below is a copy of Buckhead's famous post #47 which started the unraveling of Dan Rather's story. His post is displayed as part of the exhibit. The red text are working links.

Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard [post 47]

NYTIMES ^ | 09/09/04 | KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and RALPH BLUMENTHAL

Posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 11:10:56 PM by Pikamax

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard came under renewed scrutiny on Wednesday as newfound documents emerged ....

 

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To: Howlin

Howlin, every single one of these memos to file is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman.

In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts.

The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software, and personal computers. They were not widespread until the mid to late 90's. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn't used for personal memos to file. Even the Wang systems that were dominant in the mid 80's used monospaced fonts.

I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old.

This should be pursued aggressively.

47 posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 11:59:43 PM by Buckhead

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies | Report Abuse]

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It was thrill to see the key role played by Free Republic in exposing a media lie against Bush at a pivotal moment right before the November election. The Newseum will draw a lot of tourists and many will see this.

[SE Mom]

Prayers for successful surgery and complete recovery...

[ConservativeMind]

Congrats to all involved!

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Kudo Creds to JR and Buckhead a part of American history.

[Caramelgal]

I’m still pretty skeptical about the Newseum - $20/ticket is awfully high, especially since all the ads about it seem to highlight their multiple movies screens.

I don’t know that $20 is all that outrageous. Admission to the International Spy Museum runs at $18 for adult admission. DC is a major metropolitan city like NYC and prices there are pretty high for hotels rooms and restaurants compared to some other cities. On my last trip to DC, I paid about $20 for a lunch for a simple spinach salad and iced tea at a downtown restaurant.

http://www.spymuseum.org/plan/ticketing.php

I went to the International Spy Museum a few years ago and it was really cool and I’d highly recommend it for anyone planning a visit. There were a lot movie screens and displays behind glass, but also a lot of interactive exhibits and hands on displays. For instance, at the beginning of the tour, everyone was given a dossier of their “spy identity”, name, place of birth, profession, etc. and at the end of the tour you had to answer questions about your “assumed” identity to see how much you remembered about your dossier. There was also an exhibit that showed photos of what on the surface appeared to be common street scenes and you were asked to identify on a touch screen what you though appeared to be suspicious in the photos. I did really good at that one like pointing out two people in the photo carrying identical brief cases, a neatly folded paper bag sitting on top of a trash can and a car with a book sitting on its dashboard and keys left in the ignition.

Living in Baltimore, I am pretty close to DC and make at least one annual day trip to DC. And a lot of museums like the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, the National Achieves, etc. don’t charge any admission.

But I would be willing to pay $20 to go to the Newseum just to check it out.

[abb]

ping

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Yes, it $20 for a ticket. kburi went opening day cause it was free. Newsies claim that they don’t want to take Fed money in order to maintain independance. Fed money always comes with conditions.

[Interesting Times]

A considerably more detailed account can be found here:

Rather's Ruin and the Rise of the Pajamahadeen

[Hoodlum91]

I love the SpyMuseum, and I’m looking forward to the opening of the National Museum of Crime and Punishment

http://www.crimemuseum.org/

But you’re right, the prices are a bit comparable. My difference has been the exhibits. I guess I’ve been less than impressed with the ads for the Newseum. I’m sure you’ve heard them - all they talk about is having a news helicopter and several floors of movie screens and TVs. I’m sure it must have more, but everytime I hear an ad, I think I’m not paying $20 to watch TV.

[do the dhue]

Amen

[Interesting Times]

Ping to post #47.

[Caramelgal]

..the ads for the Newseum. I’m sure you’ve heard them - all they talk about is having a news helicopter and several floors of movie screens and TVs. I’m sure it must have more, but everytime I hear an ad, I think I’m not paying $20 to watch TV.

I’ve heard the ads on local Baltimore radio for the last month and I agree that if it’s nothing more than TV screens, then I would agree that the $20 is a bit steep. But then again I pay more than $100 a month for digital cable and high speed internet access….

Thanks for the info on the National Museum of Crime and Punishment.

BTW – if you are interested in sports and baseball history in particular and anywhere near the Baltimore area, you might want to check out:

http://www.baberuthmuseum.com/

[Lancey Howard]

Cool!

[pillut48]

Prayers going up!! Perhaps a stand-alone thread to alert other FReepers to this situation?

[Cathy]

Crime and Punishment Museum looks awesome, I didn’t even know it was ready to open so soon.

Spy Museum was very cool, my husband hasn’t been yet so it might be work taking a day off work and going to both. I would never undertake this on a weekend.

[BufordP]

Thanks! That makes for a nice addition to the thread.

[American Quilter]

I love telling people that it was FReepers who first suspected and then confirmed that the Rather documents were forgeries.

I hope everyone who appreciates the magnificence of this forum is donating during the FReepathon. Where would we be without it???

[Tribune7]

I smile when I think of Dan Rather seeing this exhibit.

[American Quilter]

God bless you, JimRob, and your entire medical team. May they find the solution, and may God grant you a swift recovery!