The Freeper’s name was Buckhead, and he proved it literally in a matter of minutes after the forgeries were put on the air. The so-called Texas Air National Guard memos were typed in a typeface that was extremely rare for a word processor in the early 1970s, using superscripts that simply weren’t being used on word processors in the early 1970s. However, both the typeface and the superscripts were very ordinary parts — the default settings, in fact — of a Microsoft Word purchase, starting in 1987.
A real old school journalist would know about fonts and type faces.
I thought when looking at the documents that the original type resembled something from a manual typewriter or maybe an early version of the electric typewriter. The original type had a smudgey appearance that was common with type from old manuals, and the type would sludge further as the documents aged. The type in the fabricated portions was clearer and crisper. Someone also used too much white out on the old text in order to insert the new text. I could make out the marks where the white out had smeared and cakes in spots.
Being an old secretary has its advantages.
Another poster called out the documents during the broadcast...within minutes...Buckhead posted a bit later. The timeline is laid out in the book To Set the Record Straight.