YET ANOTHER EXPERT, MORE ARGUMENTS AGAINST (CBS Documents)

National Review ^ | 9-9-04

[ambrose]

YET ANOTHER EXPERT, MORE ARGUMENTS AGAINST [09/09 03:48 PM]

Kerry Spot reader Bruce Webster who has as served as an expert witness in U.S. District Court cases regarding computer document forensics, writes in that the CBS News document "has all sorts of problems... The typefaces weren't available on typewriters in 1973."

The typefaces listed and linked below, by the way, do not have “curly” quotes, only "straight" ones. Oddly, you'll notice the CBS documents, like the Kerry Spot, have both, sometimes in the same document. (On the Kerry Spot, this is a result of transferring text from a word processing program into web-publishing program Moveable Type. (A link using curly quotes won't link correctly, which means every link has to be checked to make sure it has the right kind of quotes.)

CBS had better have one heck of a defense for this.

[Guillermo]

Has the WH said anything about them?

I trust CBS as far as I can throw them, but until someone credible debunks them, they'll be believed (and reported on) by the rest of the media.

[Rutles4Ever]

The NRO source seems pretty credible. A computer forensics expert with courtrooom experience?

[jimbo123]

Viacom needs to explain why Dan Rather is using forged documents in his "news" reports.

[william clark]

What will be interesting is, if these are proven to be forgeries, will Rather be so pissed at having been made a fool of that he'll turn on and expose his source?

I like the idea of just calling them forgeries and putting the burden of proof on the Kerry camp, which is where it should be anyway. Mystery documents from the personal files of a dead man that aren't found anywhere else? Come on.

[Guillermo]

It's just an NRO "reader."

It's not someone they contracted to examine them, etc.

I hope it's true, just so the media doesn't have this to harp on for the rest of the campaign.

Personally, it's not important to me, but I guess it would be if Bush based his whole campaign on his NG service.

Kerry's only reason he gives to be President is his Vietnam service, thus, it should be on the table.

[kevao]

My gut tells me Bagala and Carville are behind this.

[kaktuskid]

The FCC needs to yank EVERY license of every CBS owned tv and radio station...those licenses are a privilege given to a brodcaster in exchange for serving the public, which CBS/Viacom is not doing!

[Momto2]

It's posted on Drudge Report now...... Anyone listening to Hannity???

[Mike Fieschko]

If National Review picked this up, it HAS to be damning.

This story began, as near as I can tell, with freeper Buckhead's Post 47 [ Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard ] posted on 09/08/2004 11:59:43 PM EDT.

It got picked up this morning at 07:51 AM at powerlineblog.com.

I watched for a while this morning, freepmailing Buckhead, as the story got out into the blogsphere.

The pros, experts in document analysis, need to take over for a while.

I know that the FBI used to (still does?) have experts in typewriters. National Review or someone else should hire a retired FBIer to look over exactly what CBS claims to be authentic documents, or copies of authentic documents.

Second, we all should emphasize that IT WAS FREEREPUBLIC which started this. Then others took the ball. FREEREPUBLIC WAS FIRST WITH THIS.

[DaveMSmith]

Anyone listening to Hannity???

I am. He has Gingrich on... just mentioned NRO

[Richard Kimball]

Without regard to the obvious MS Word elements of the letters, the letters don't read like an officer's writing. Also, it's a little too odd that this perfect "Bush was AWOL" chain of evidence is suddenly discovered now.

People have been posting that Rather and CBS are finished, if this is true. Nah. Anyone remember when NBC was caught planting bombs in GM pickups to make them explode on impact to illustrate a story that the saddle-tanks were unsafe?

They went "whoops!" and scuttled along on their merry way.

It's part of the death of a thousand cuts that the old media is inflicting upon itself, but it's just another day at the old Pravda-mill for Dan Rather. He won't leave til the hair implants fall out and he has an allergic reaction to botox.

[Brilliant]

Get the orginals and do a fingerprint test on them.

[PAR35]

but that they'd be so incompetent.

My guess would be college students or 20-somethings who don't remember lifwe before PCs or older guys who had secretaries do their typing. Not many of us of that era could change a type ball on a Selectric (I could - I was one of the few guys in my college typing class).

[rocklobster11]

Also, it's a little too odd that this perfect "Bush was AWOL" chain of evidence is suddenly discovered now

The problem I have with these being forgeries is that it is not "perfect" Bush was AWOL evidence. In fact, it doesn't do anything to show that Bush was AWOL. The first memo is an order to show up for a physical, and the second is a memo about discussions that were had about only taking the physical if he continued flying once he got to Alabama. No smoking gun here.

The only way these could be faked is if they were faked by a Bush supporter just to make Dan Rather look bad. Someone on the other side would have at least put something damaging in to memos they took time to forge.

[Melpomene]

You have to admit though, whatever the font, it does not look anything like the font from a typical typewriter from the 70s, particularly one used by the military.

[RatherBiased.com]

People who collect Selectrics and Composers do not believe the documents were created on them.

http://ratherbiased.com/news/content/view/202/2/

[Robert A Cook PE]

So, you're gonna somehow pretend that a minor Lt Col fighter pilot in a minor Texas Air National Guard base, typing letters to himself on his own time (no C"clerk's initials nor author's initials, no "memorandum numbers, no file numbers, no code for subject matter and date stamp!) somehow got access to an expensive, single purpose proportional font typesetting machine in the early 1970's to write a "Cover Your Ass" memo TO HIMSELF that no body would EVER be interested in reading later about an obscure low-ranknig non-flying reserve junior officer who wanted to go to Alabama to serve EXTRA duty out of state?!?!?!?!

[KenD]

The work looks good, but I have a more fundamental question:

IF these are CYA documents from Killians PERSONAL files, WHY are they COPIES? Shouldn't they be ORIGINALS without all of the 'dirty glass' artifacts?

[Nataku X]

This was duplicated using Word's default font settings... except that I used 11 pt font instead of 12... the first is original, second is Word generated... the images aren't exactly the same size but you can tell by comparing the letters from one line below to one line above that it's an exact match.



I hope that showed up; I'm posting in Lynx.

[savedbygrace]

Rather maybe, CBS no.