Posted on 09/30/2004 3:27:49 PM PDT by mojito
Fact Checking the Boston Globe - in Advance The blogosphere is abuzz that there might be an authoritative expert by the name of David E. Hailey, Jr., Ph.D. who might have proven the CBS documents are legit.
The Boston Globe is so excited they are getting ready to run with it.
I hope they do. Dr. Hailey is a liar, a fraud and a charlatan.
And I have the goods.
He attempted to copy Charles' work of reproducing the document on a typewriter. Supposedly, the top line is the CBS memo and the bottom line a 1970's era typewriter. But there was a problem...
First download the pdf his analysis. Then go to page 9 and zoom in on the "th" at 400% you'll see...
As they sing on Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the other."
UPDATE I viewed the pdf on screen and it was obviously a forgery. Spoons says he could not see it so I rerasterized it as saved it as a jpg. I think it is clearer. If you doubt me, like everything in the blogosphere, follow the links. (/update)
Here is a hint for the good Professor-- If you are going to forge documents DON'T LEAVE THE EVIDENCE on your webserver.
And if you don't think that TH nailed him, feel free to download the PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT he was working on when he created the forgery.
Not only did he forge the document but he let the work in progress in an open web folder.
And Professor, if you are reading this- and I know someone will mail it to you, I have downloaded your entire website as evidence and I saved screen caps of it, so don't bother delete it. I also had an interesting phone call with the head of your department. You might give him a call.
Did you think we were stupid?
Update OpenSecrets.org say the good professor gave John Kerry $250 (thanks Allah)
Update 2: We got word from Charles at LGF that the Globe is backing away from the guy. I wonder why.
Update 3: The Backstory I had this story last night. In fact, I mailed it to James and Steven because it was a case of academic misconduct and they follow that sorta stuff.
I asked them to hold it because I was calling the head of his department in the morning. It was not etched in stone that I was going to blog this. I called the head of his department and he was a very nice gentleman. He looked at the pdf and agreed it did not look right but said he did not have the expertise to say it was a fraud.
He asked me to make the case for academic misconduct and mail it to him. I told him he would get it Monday morning. Once I saw the Globe was considering running the story and that Charles and Allah had links to it, I knew someone would bust the guy so I may as well do it.
In other words DSA... Not in your wildest freaking dreams. (ROFLMAO at closed circuit humor ;-)
Update 4: One of the commenters noted that the pdf version was updated about 1pm TODAY. I have no idea if the guy knows he's famous, so I don't know if he was trying to cover his tracks or if he just just still working on the forgery. (er document) If he was trying to cover something he did a bad job as the bogus TH is still plainly clear.
There's also something wrong with the "nd"s in the words "conduct" and "conducted". Look at them at 400%...they don't match.
Yes, I'm reading that too. Go slow everybody. Read the posts on the blog before jumping to conclusions.
Prairie
It's happened to me lots of times when I scanned original letters from the aliens that were telling me which government officials were actually replaced by body doubles with implantedmind control systems.
Oh.. my...God....
Why are they doing this?
Indeed. That would be evidence he's full of it. But it's NOT evidence he's committed academic fraud. The point is, he explicitly stated that he constructed the document in PhotoShop. There was no secrecy.
bump
Say hi to Hailey. I just sent him this thread.
DUDE you need to send this to the president and chairman of the school. If he used school equipment to perpatraint a fraud say Buh BYE tenure hello unemployment...
Here we have the comparison BEFORE the 'th' is added in, also note the 72 (in 1972)
This image on his site shows some difference between the two fonts. Look at the a, c,e,p,v and y for starters.
If it was an excercize in making a document using a modern computer program, (Photoshop) what is the point?
The allegation is that the document was produced using a modern computer program (Microsoft Word). If his findings are that it could have been done with a typewriter, it is a false statement since he used a computer.
That is fraud.
Notice how he also set aside and came back later to individually modify the numbers in the dates (e.g., 9, 7, & 2) to make them look more like the memo. I hate people who lie like that. It is one thing to make a mistake in analysis, another thing entirely to lie and make money off of it by professing to be an expert.
He explicitly stated in the text of his document that he constructed them in this manner. There is no fraud here. A stupid case with holes you could drive a Hummer through, but no fraud.
It's weird. Based on his bio at USU, Hailey is a specialist in technical writing (multimedia, online learning, help files, etc.), not forensics or typography. He has to know that he'd get blown out of the water by the real experts. He seems technically astute enough, so why risk being made a laughing stock?
He was trying to show that the fonts match a typewriter font better than Times Roman. He doesn't HAVE the typewriter in question. (A big flaw in his argument of course.)
The allegation is that the document was produced using a modern computer program (Microsoft Word). If his findings are that it could have been done with a typewriter, it is a false statement since he used a computer. That is fraud.
Wrong. Fraud requires intent to deceive. He described his methodology in detail, opening himself up to plenty of criticism---and he quite deservedly is receiving it. Like I said, his argument has so many holes you can drive a Hummer through them.
What would have been fraud is if he did not share his methods, and attempted to convince us that he constructed this document on a typewriter. He did not do that.
Oops, I should have italicized that third paragraph, because it is yours, not mine.
So he's actually trying to reconstruct whether the forgeries might have been Photoshopped? If so, why the heck would the Globe run with that?
I don't know if this has been brought up before but there is a very simple way to tell if the Rathergate documents are forged.
If you can examine the original documents, a typewrite impacts the paper and leaves an indent in the paper in the shape of the key.
A laser printer burns the image on to the paper.
All you have to do is look at the print under magnification to show the truth.
Now you know why they will not produce originals. This method will conclusively prove that the documents were forged.
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