Posted on 09/10/2004 3:55:47 AM PDT by billorites
The echoes of the big Internet bang which annihilated a 60 Minutes story in under 12 hours are still resounding. The key riffs apparently started at Powerline and as Samizdata notes, the distributed intelligence of the Internet took over. Under the scrutiny of thousands of analysts, the CBS story began to melt down. The idea that the intellectual resources of a major news agency are always superior to the blogosphere is given by lie by citing these two separate lines of analysis which, though proceeding from different starting points, both led to the conclusion that the documents which Dan Rather relied on to question the Bush National Guard record were faked. Donald Sensing's analysis was grounded in a familiarity with military documents.
The two memos refer to a flight physical and a flight review board, both IAW ("in accordance with") AFM 35-13. But that would stand for "Air Force Manual" 35-13, and manuals are guidelines only. They have no regulatory authority. No one takes a physical exam, flight or not, IAW a manual. ...
So I went there and discovered, sure enough, that there was an Air Force Regulation 35-13, but no AF Manual 35-13 is listed. AFR 35-13 was superceded in 1990 by AFI36-2605 (Air Force Instruction, i.e., the same as a regulation). So I Googled AFI36-2605 and voilá! Here it is. This instruction implements Air Force Policy Directive 36-26, Military Force Management, and Department of Defense Instruction (DODI) 7280.3, Special Pay for Foreign Language Proficiency. It prescribes all procedures for administering the Air Force Military Personnel Testing System and Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) program. Which is to say, this publication has nothing to do with flight physicals.
From all this I conclude that the Killian-signed documents are forgeries, forged by someone without a very good knowledge of military correspondence or Air Force publications or procedures. Based on the Air Force's own online library of current and obsolete publications, I conclude that there never was an Air Force Manual 35-13, although there was an AF Regulation by that number. But a lieutenant colonel would never have made such a fundamental error as using "AFM" twice when he meant AFR.
As TV lawyers would say, the documents were fake because there was no Air Force Manual 35-13 and it had nothing to do with physical examinations. The analysis of Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs, on the other hand, was based on the technical characteristics of the 60 Minutes documents themselves. He convincingly showed that the 1973 document was produced on Word for Windows by the simple expedient of "proof by construction" -- by exactly duplicating the document in Winword and superimposing both using Photoshop. Poor Kevin Drum dismissed these demonstrations by arguing from authority. "Powerline appears to be the central clearinghouse for amateur discussion of typefaces, terminology, signatures, etc. For what it's worth, I spoke to someone a few minutes ago who's familiar with how the documents were vetted, and the bottom line is that CBS is very, very confident that the memos are genuine."
Here was the dismissal of amateurs in favor of the genuine CBS branded product. But in fact it was doubtful that the "experts" at CBS stood a ghost of a chance against the "amateurs" who ripping their story apart. Here's was Charles Johnson's matter of fact reply.
I actually received two emails from people questioning my expertise to examine and criticize the documents shown in the entries immediately below. Can you believe it? So here’s the skinny.
I’ve been involved with desktop publishing software and scalable software fonts (as opposed to hot lead type) almost since their inception. I’m a former West Coast editor of a popular computer magazine for a now-orphaned computer, the Atari ST/TT. I also co-owned a software publishing firm, CodeHead Technologies, for whom I designed and laid out packaging and manuals for more than a dozen products (in addition to developing most of those products, using 680x0 assembly language). We used a combination of DTP and traditional typesetting techniques for these jobs, and I cut my teeth on some of the first serious DTP software ever created for personal computers—including Aldus Pagemaker and Aldus Freehand on the Mac, and less recognizable titles available for Atari computers (anyone still using Calamus or Pagestream out there?).
My software company also marketed a word processing program (Calligrapher, written by a developer in Britain) that had the ability to import and use Postscript Type 1 fonts. And I had early experience with some of the dinosaur-like dedicated word processors that were available in the 70s/80s. I’m not boasting like this just to pump up my lizardoid ego; it’s to let you know that I have an extensive background in these subjects—and when I tell you that there’s no way the CBS News documents were created on any machine available in 1972/1973, I ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie.
While there is no doubt that there are competent professionals at CBS News, how many of them have extensive experience in the arcana of military forms or writing DTP software in assembler? None of this is to argue that the mainstream media is always wrong or that the blogosphere will always be right. Blogs, including this one, are often wrong. But there is no reason why bloggers should ipso facto be dismissed as amateur analysts when compared to the Mainstream Media (MSM). The traditional news model is collapsing. It suffers from two defects. The "news object" can no longer be given sealed attributes in newspaper backrooms. The days when the press was the news object foundry are dying. Second, the news industry is suffering from its lack of analytic cells, which are standard equipment in intellgence shops. Editors do some analysis but their focus is diluted by their attention to style and the craft of writing. The blogosphere and other actors, now connected over the Internet, are filling in for the missing analytic function. And although the news networks still generate, via their reporters, the bulk of primary news, they generate a pitiful amount of competent analysis. Put another way, the classic media outlet generates data and entertainment but they don't generate much information. Because of this, the MSM will stumble into these pitfalls time and again. The Andrew Gilligan and Jayson Blair fiascos were indicators that something was really wrong, but no one was listening then. Maybe there is no point to listening now.
Man, it's going to be chilly around the Barnes' Thanksgiving table...
Good find....I would suggest too that Howlin inspired him.
"There are the documents; now you see if you think they say what the NYT says they say."
I am in awe of your rant. And I despise journalists as mostly incompetent boobs. Well done!
You go girl.
Proportional spacing and superscripts? Oh, please. Does anyone seriously think that CBS would seriously think that the public in general, and the Bush Campaign in particular, would think there were typewriters in 1972 that had a row of 0-9 for each of the st, nd, rd, th superscripts.
Come on people, there is another level to this fraud. This is a judo move, not a yoga pose. 
>Ok, so how long before CBS tries to blame the forgeries on the RNC? I'm thinking by Sunday. <
They've already put up at least one trial balloon. Little Steffie SteppedOnAllOfUs, on ABC this morning, suggested the forgeries "could have been done" by Republicans.
He's such a worm.
They would be "fooled" in their rush to judgement,
They got their a$$ beat by Fox in the ratings and are desperate for ratings.
They blinded by their hate for Bush.
They word processing questions you dismiss aside, please explain this away:
"The two memos refer to a flight physical and a flight review board, both IAW ("in accordance with") AFM 35-13. But that would stand for "Air Force Manual" 35-13, and manuals are guidelines only. They have no regulatory authority. No one takes a physical exam, flight or not, IAW a manual. ...
So I went there and discovered, sure enough, that there was an Air Force Regulation 35-13, but no AF Manual 35-13 is listed. AFR 35-13 was superceded in 1990 by AFI36-2605 (Air Force Instruction, i.e., the same as a regulation). So I Googled AFI36-2605 and voilá! Here it is. This instruction implements Air Force Policy Directive 36-26, Military Force Management, and Department of Defense Instruction (DODI) 7280.3, Special Pay for Foreign Language Proficiency. It prescribes all procedures for administering the Air Force Military Personnel Testing System and Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) program. Which is to say, this publication has nothing to do with flight physicals.
From all this I conclude that the Killian-signed documents are forgeries, forged by someone without a very good knowledge of military correspondence or Air Force publications or procedures. Based on the Air Force's own online library of current and obsolete publications, I conclude that there never was an Air Force Manual 35-13, although there was an AF Regulation by that number. But a lieutenant colonel would never have made such a fundamental error as using "AFM" twice when he meant AFR."
Translation....the references in the docs are all wrong and BS.
And as an astute caller into KOGO pointed out yesterday, the SAME type of fake documents are made up into the PDF's of Kerry's own website's fraudulent military history.
More application of latter day typography to try to fool us.
Who is covering that meltdown yet?
Is collapsing? It done collapsed a long time ago. Just ask CNN.
As for its previous standing? It was never that competent to begin with; not in the last 40 years. As for the last 20 years, the word incompetent comes to mind.
Who goes into "journalism"? Even as far back as the 50s the word elicited contempt and laughter. Here is a "profession" that required no knowledge whatsoever other than the ability to speak and write one's own language, something most intelligent 4-year-olds can handle with no formal education whatsoever.
Think of the gaffes in recent documovies: reversing latitude and longitude and being blissfully unaware of it.
Now, couple that with a tendency from these same Einsteins to manufacture facts if real ones don't come along, and doing it incompetently and you have our keystone-kops scenario.
Only difference is, these are becoming criminal acts. And criminal penalties should follow. Ignorance in combination with stupidity should carry serious jail time.
bump
Ain't it sweet when everything you've always known as a Conservative is proven to be true.
Can the rest of the world now admit that Tom Harkin is a moron?
Those that can't do, teach. Those that can't teach, REPORT!
I think the ploy was meant to be discovered. Why? I don't know, but I think that much is obvious.
"that there is no way that CBS, rating hungry or not, could possibly think they wouldn't be discovered."
Well, I'm glad you have that much faith in the veracity and competency of the MSM and CBS in particular.
Doesn't explain the disputing of the documents by another officer, the signer's son and wife.
While I too was apt to take the initial post with a grain of salt, there's just too much to indicate otherwise. IMHO
..but, but, but.... you are not Dan Rather !
Sorry to echo Jim Lehrer, but the blogworld is changing the way news can be generated and packaged in fundamental ways. Rather is the biggest dinosaurs to be hit so far, but there can be little doubt that the oldline hegemony is in the crosshairs and headed towards extinction.
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