This guy
Posted on 09/09/2004 4:42:30 PM PDT by dep
DOCUMENTS CITED Wednesday by 60 Minutes in a widely-publicized expose of George W. Bush's National Guard Service are very likely forgeries, according to several experts on document authenticity and typography. The documents--four memos from Killian to himself or his files written in 1972 and 1973--appear to indicate that Bush refused or ignored orders to have a physical exam required to continue flying. CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported the segment and sourced the documents this way: "60 Minutes has obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file," he said. The 60 Minutes story served as the basis for follow-up news reports for dozens of news organizations across the country. The memos were almost immediately questioned in the blog world, with blog Power Line leading the charge.
And according to several forensic document experts contacted by THE WEEKLY STANDARD say the Killian memos appear to be forgeries. Although it is nearly impossible to establish with certainty the authenticity of documents without a careful examination of the originals, several irregularities in the Killian memos suggest that CBS may have been the victim of a hoax.
"These sure look like forgeries," says William Flynn, a forensic document expert widely considered the nation's top analyst of computer-generated documents. Flynn looked at copies of the documents posted on the CBS News website (here, here, here, and here). Flynn says, "I would say it looks very likely that these documents could not
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have existed" in the early 1970s, when they were allegedly written.
Several other experts agree. "They look mighty suspicious," says a veteran forensic document expert who asked not to be quoted by name. Richard Polt, a Xavier University philosophy professor who operates a website dedicated to typewriters, says that while he is not an expert on typesetting, the documents "look like typical word-processed documents."
There are several reasons these experts are skeptical of the authenticity of the Killian memos. First the typographic spacing is proportional, as is routine with professional typesetting and computer typography, not monospace, as was common in typewriters in the 1970s. (In proportional type, thin letters like "i" and "l" are spaced closer together than thick letters like "W" and "M". In monospace, all the letter widths are the same.)
Second, the font appears to be identical to the Times New Roman font that is the default typeface in Microsoft Word and other modern word processing programs. According to Flynn, the font is not listed in the Haas Atlas--the definitive encyclopedia of typewriter type fonts.
Third, the apostrophes are curlicues of the sort produced by word processors on personal computers, not the straight vertical hashmarks typical of typewriters. Finally, in some references to Bush's unit--the 111thFighter Interceptor Squadron--the "th" is a superscript in a smaller size than the other type. Again, this is typical (and often done automatically) in modern word processing programs. Although several experts allow that such a rendering might have been theoretically possible in the early 1970s, it would have been highly unlikely. Superscripts produced on typewriters--the numbers preceding footnotes in term papers, for example--were almost always in the same size as the regular type.
So can we say with absolute certainty that the documents were forged? Not yet. Xavier University's Polt, in an email, offers two possible scenarios. "Either these are later transcriptions of earlier documents (which may have been handwritten or typed on a typewriter), or they are crude and amazingly foolish forgeries. I'm a Kerry supporter myself, but I won't let that cloud my objective judgment: I'm 99% sure that these documents were not produced in the early 1970s."
Says Flynn: "This looks pretty much like a hoax at this point in time."
CBS, in a statement Thursday afternoon, said it stands by the story. The network claims that its own document expert concluded the memos were authentic. There are several things CBS could do to clear up any confusion:
(1) Provide the name of the expert who authenticated the documents for Sixty Minutes.
(2) Provide the original documents to outside experts--William Flynn, Gerald Reynolds, and Peter Tytell seem to be the consensus top three in the United States--for further analysis.
(3) Provide more information on the source of the documents.
(A spokeswoman for CBS, Kelly Edwards, said she was overwhelmed with phone calls and did not respond to specific requests for comment.)
Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at The Weekly Standard.
In any case, this should generate a couple weeks of fun, kinda like that whole nyt/jayson blair thing. Kerry's boat takes another torpedo.
LOL!! How true!
I worked at IBM Federal Systems Division in 1972. As a new employee, I started my training on the IBM Executive Proportional Typewriter.
However, state-of-the-art at the time was the IBM Selectric Magnetic Card Typewriter which recorded keystrokes on magnetic media roughly the size and shape of data processing cards. Once a document was proofed, those puppies would run off a final copy at 150 words at minute. It created quite a racket in a word processing center with 20 magnetic typewriters and tape machines. Cubicles lined with carpet did little to absorb the noise.
So far I've seen four document experts willing to put their names to "Fake". The number standing by "authentic": less than one actually.
Thanks for the info on the Drudge site. As of this time the 60Minutes logo is still upside down, love it.
This guy
LOL... you're everywhere... :-)
Victim? Likely participant at worst, willingly fooled out of blind rage against Bush, at best.
I find it interesting that even the Weekly Standard describes this as, "It looks like CBS may have been the victim of a hoax"...
And not one person describes it as "It looks like George W. Bush may have been the victim of a hoax".
Qwinn
Especially the punctuation marks and most especially the period, which sometimes punches a hole right through the paper. I have a very old Underwood portable I sometimes use and from time to time I have to adjust it for this and other reasons.
Also, as the typewriter ribbon gets worn, the print tone lightens, especially for those passages typed when the ribbon is near the end.
There are lots of other peculiarities too. For instance, in an old typewriter like mine, the metal characters wear down with age and do so unevenly. This changes their appearance in ways not casually apparent but which become obvious under close inspection.
Spread the word!
IMO, the Weekly knows very well that CBS is no victim here. I think they're suggesting by indirection a way out for CBS, namely, to admit they're fools rather than admit they're liars.
IIRC, Buckhead's post was the first to suggest that the documents were forgeries, then Howlin posted a separate thread about the documents, which helped to get the ball rolling. And lots of freepers chimed in with good analyses. What I think is the coolest is how there's nothing that the document experts pointed out, that hadn't already been pointed out by at least one freeper!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210516/posts?page=107#107
And you are right -- I've caught myself posting to people this very day "we did that last night".........LOL.
Frankly, I'm surprised it got this big this soon, aren't you?
Nightline is covering it.
I was going to write a note to Instapundit last night, and pointing him to the thread and commentary. Then my email crashed and I decided to just go to bed and write something up in the morning. When I got up, I looked at Drudge and was thrilled to see that this story had gotten traction, thanks to freepers' work (the Powerline blog started running with the story after being alerted to our comments.) Now Nightline's covering it? Very cool!
If the documents that CBS broadcast to the world are proven to be forged, John Kerry himself ought to call for the firing of Dan Rather.
Hitlery's operatives created the forgeries (or bought them) and got them to Dan Rathernot to skewer any chance of F'n winning this thing.
Victory in this case justly has a thousand fathers. Tanker KC first pegged them as fakes by the overall look, and I later noted the font issue. Many other defects have been noted by others. I haven't gotten any work done, but it's been a ton of fun. The most amazing thing is how this thing has exploded across the internet.
Mwuhahahahaha!!!
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