Posted on 09/09/2004 11:14:40 AM PDT by RatherBiased.com
During last night's 60 Minute program on President George W. Bush's Air National Guard service, the CBS News touted a number of documents which seemingly indicate that the future president failed to meet his service obligations.
That may well be the case but it is becoming increasingly evident that 60 Minutes, and the Dan Rather, the reporter behind the story, may have been relying on forged documents to prove their case.
Several indicators point to this conclusion including the fact that the four memoranda, which Rather said were written during the early 1970s by Bush's commanding officer Lt. Colonel Jerry Killian, are printed in a proportionally spaced type style similar to the common computer font Times New Roman. But such computer technology had not even been invented when the documents were allegedly written.
This does not imply, however, that the memos could not have originated during the 1970s since IBM, the dominant player in the office equipment at the time had several years earlier invented a typewriter which allowed typists to use proportional fonts.
Such machines, marketed mainly under the model name Selectric had become quite popular by the early seventies even though they were extremely expensive according to Jim Forbes, who collects the now-discontinued machines and operates a web site about them called Selectric.org.
For the most part, organizations who could afford the typewriters only allowed professional typists to use them especially since they were often cumbersome to use. Non-professionals stuck to the older, less-complicated typewriters which printed in the traditional monospace fonts like Courier.
As a government installation, it is quite possible that the Texas Air National Guard had a few Selectric (or its successor models) in its possession. However, examination of Bush's official records released by the Pentagon reveals that Killian and his fellow officers did not use proportional spacing typewriters (1, 2, 3, 4) for their correspondence.
For its part, CBS has refused to disclose where it had obtained the controversial documents. During last night's program, Rather stated "we are told [they] were taken from Colonel Killian's personal file." Contacted by The Washington Post, Kelli Edwards, a spokesperson for 60 Minutes declined to elaborate any further.
Other evidence points toward the conclusion that CBS News may have been duped. Two of the alleged memos, dated May 4, 1972 and August 18, 1973, use a font technology that was beyond the capabilities of the day.
Both documents use relatively sized fonts to write out ordinal numbers, a typographical convention used to spell out numerical orderings or rankings such as "twenty-fourth." In normal English usage are often written in shorted form using the relevant number followed by an ordinal suffix. Thus "twenty-fourth" becomes 24th. The 1972 document uses the ordinal 111st and the other refers to 187th.
The fact that the person who made the documents used this notation casts doubt on their authenticity since typing it out numerically with a superscript ordinal suffix was quite difficult to do on an Selectric model typewriter which required a very involved process in which the user would have to feed the paper up half a line, manually remove the device's "font ball" which was used to place characters onto the paper, replace it with a ball with a smaller-sized font, advance the page back down half a line, and then put back the original font ball.
While it is conceivable that the memos' creator may have actually followed the elaborate procedure to get the perfect superscript ordinal suffix, that does not seem likely according to Gerry Kaplan, another Selectric collector who operates IBMComposer.org.
"The person who produced this copy does not appear to have taken the time to properly space things out, such as 'May,1972' has no space after the comma; '(flight)IAW' has no space after the parenthesis. So, it would be hard to believe that they would take the time to produce the superscript 'th' manually. So, if no general-use typewriter existed with such keys, it is unlikely that they took the time to superscript that," Kaplan says.
Theoretically, it is possible that Killian may have had access to a font ball which contained superscript-sized ordinal suffixes, but such an accessory would have been very rare.
"If one had a font ball that had a superscript font, then it could be done, but as far as I know, the only common superscript font was the number set available on the Symbol balls," says Forbes. "These would be used for formal papers with footnotes, most likely. So, the short answer to your question about a letter superscript is 'No.'"
The typographical case against the documents' authenticity is further undermined considering that all of the memos appear to use a font that was not in wide use on Selectric machines during the early seventies. A search of Forbes's online archive of common Selectric fonts reveals none matching typeface used in the purported Killian memos. In fact, the CBS documents' font looks much more similar to the modern-day Times New Roman.
In the face of such evidence (including the fact that Killian has long since been deceased), and CBS's refusal to reveal its third-party source, it seems increasingly likely that Dan Rather's "exclusive" has turned out to be a hoax. Should that be the case, it would not be the first time that the 72-year-old anchorman has been embarrassed by reporting unconfirmed stories.
In his legendary book on the 1972 presidential campaign The Boys on the Bus, author Timothy Crouse relayed how many of Rather's rivals on the White House beat resented him for his gung-ho approach to the facts.
"Rather often adhered to the 'informed sources' or 'the White House announced today' formulas, but he was famous in the trade for the times when he bypassed these formulas and 'winged it' on a story. Rather would go with an item even if he didn't have it completely nailed down with verifiable facts. If a rumor sounded solid to him, if he believed it in his gut or had gotten it from a man who struck him as honest, he would let it rip. The other White House reporters hated Rather for this. They knew exactly why he got away with it: being handsome as a cowboy, Rather was a star on CBS News, and that gave him the clout he needed. They could quote all his lapses from fact, like the three times he had Ellsworth Bunker resigning, the two occasions on which he announced that J. Edgar Hoover would step down, or the time he incorrectly predicted that Nixon was about to veto an education bill."
These are NOT government files!
Thanks, folks. Good work, SW !!
Doubt it....I can see how they would put this story out...to cover blathers A$$.
Closer inspection should reveal whether the characters were printed by impact or not. Perhaps Dan Rather and company asked these sort of skeptical questions. But the fact that already-released memos were typed in monospaced fonts makes me more suspicious.
Check out: http://www.selectric.org/selectric/
All the type styles for the Selectric and Selectric II have straight apostrophes, albeit some at a slant.
These memos did NOT come from any FOIA to the government. They are NOT in Bush's file.
After spending the last year watching you kiddies throw absolutely anything at GWB that might possibly stick, be advised I'm positively gloating over your getting caught red-handed trying to pass off ludicrously amateur forgeries as the real thing. My friends and I know what 'CBS' stands for; since y'all are not too swift, I'll give you a clue: the 'C' stands for 'complete'.
We are LOADED with those types lately, trying to steer the information.
Respectfully, equipment like that is not unusual at your level and subject of government employment. And being the Navy Dept. In the military food chain, the Navy is as far above of any States National Guard, as a baleen whale is to plankton.
As a government installation, it is quite possible that the Texas Air National Guard had a few Selectric (or its successor models) in its possession.
After my six years active army, I spent two in the California National Guard Nike Hercules program. This program was much higher profile than any armor or infantry guard unit and was "Full Time" like the Air National Guard. Long story short, it was unusual to even find any kind of electric typewriter, let alone an IBM "Selectric".
Given my two years of experience in the "active, full-time", Nat. Guard in the early seventies, I seriously doubt the authenticity of the purported "documents" regarding the National Guard record of George Bush.
Don't feed the troll. Member since 9/9/2004...
10-12 years ago this fraud would have flown on gilded wings.
Thank God for the Internet.
LOL! How did you do that?
I saw that segment of Dan Rather reporting. It's hard to imagine he still has credibility in the news. Changes are in the wind.
A lot of DNC plants coming out of the woodwork.
photoshop
Obtaining forged documents by using FOIA? There is no way Rather got these Docs. via a legitimate FOIA request.
Microsoft Word in the 70's? You are either a troll or not too bright.
Good job! CBS has a job for you!
Just kidding.
Excellent point. Any forgeries of Bush military documents should automatically cast suspicion on the authenticity of the posted Kerry military records.
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