Posted on 09/13/2004 5:47:30 AM PDT by DocFarmer
CBS Lies. Will Dan Rather Get Away With It This Time?
Written by Doc Farmer
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Last week, 60 Minutes The Sequel (This Time It's Personal) ran a hard-hitting no-hold-barred investigative report trashing President George W. Bush. This is the fourth or fifth time CBS News has done this. Normally, this is done in the fashion of taking Bush-bashing books being sold by a publisher owned by the parent company of CBS News (Viacom) and doing puffball interviews with the authors. This time, however, CBS decided to raise, ad nauseum, the already discredited canard regarding Dubya's National Guard service.
Dan Rather interviewed a completely unbiased former Lt. Governor of Texas, one Mr. Ben Barnes, who regretted helping out Dubya by interceding on his behalf with the TXANG. Odd thing, though – Mr. Barnes wasn't Lt. Governor at the time he said he ''helped out'' the Bush family. Mr. Barnes is also a major contributor to the DNC and a big booster of Jean François Kerrée.
This is nothing new for CBS News, of course. ''Fair and Balanced'' it most definitely is not--by any stretch of the imagination. So, it's really not a shock that Dan Rather would do a softball interview with yet another Bush-whacker. His big mistake, it would appear, was to try and back up his political viewpoint with documentary evidence.
As we all know, CBS News obtained four documents, purportedly written in 1972 by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, that supports the oft-repeated claim of Dubya's failure to complete assigned duties in the National Guard. CBS News vetted the papers with signature and document experts, people who supposedly know what they're doing, and declared them genuine. Thirty years ago, that would probably have been enough. CBS News says the documents are genuine so, to coin a phrase, ''that’s the way it is.''
That was then. This is now. That's not the way it is any more.
CBS News, in an effort to prove just how nifty it is, decided to make the evidence available on the Internet. Folks (like me) downloaded them. It didn't take long for folks like me to question the validity of those four documents. Now, I'm the first to admit that I didn't pick up on the subtleties of the missing items to begin with. However, others did. Then more. Word spread, and a bunch of ''amateurs'' started to see stuff that CBS News ''experts'' seemed to miss, overlook, or simply ignore.
** Proportional font, which came from a typewriter that could only do fixed-width fonts.
** Times New Roman font was used, which was not available on IBM Selectric font balls.
** In some cases, the th after a number was superscripted, which was also not available font balls.
** In other cases, there was a space between the number and the th, which was not superscripted (word processors automatically superscript number suffixes when joined to the number).
** Curled apostrophes and quote marks were used instead of the straight ones contained on the Selectric.
** The heading on some of the documents were typed, instead of using headed stationery. This isn’t disqualifying in itself, but the address is given as a post office box instead of an actual street address.
** The other odd thing is the PO box number provided. 34567? A five digit sequential number? Doesn't this look slightly suspicious to you?
** The fonts were ''kerned,'' meaning that the spacing was varied according to the content of the words or sentences. This is a typesetting function, not a typewriting one.
** When the contents of the document were typed into a blank Microsoft Word™ document using the factory default settings, the layout was identical. Not virtually identical. Actually identical.
Then, there's the issue of the people 60 Minutes II decided to interview. For example, a producer contacted the son of the late Lt. Col. Killian and asked him some questions. His answers were apparently not to her liking (since it disagreed with the show's premise) and so the answers were ignored. She asked him to provide other people her staff could interview. According to Mr. Killian, he provided those names, and the producer dismissed them because they were (Shock! Horror!) Bush supporters.
This part seems a bit odd to me, since the chief witness, the aforementioned Mr. Barnes, is a big Kerry supporter. What's odder still is that the grand inquisitor, Mr. Rather, has spoken before a Democrat fundraiser organized by his daughter and attended by Mr. Barnes. I suppose, however, that Desperate Dan doesn't view that as a conflict of interest.
Then, there’s the case of the content of the documents. One states that Lt. Col. Killian was getting pressure from General Staudt to ''candy-coat'' Lt. Bush's record. Problem – the general retired 18 months before the memo was supposed to have been written. Didn’t anybody at 60 Minutes Redux bother to consult a calendar? I mean, there's slipshod and there's just plain stupid.
This is what the Tiffany network has sunk to.
On Friday, Dan (looking decidedly torqued off) defended the report and trotted out some experts to discuss why all those partisan political operatives and bloggers (no kidding, they actually said that stuff!) were wrong. How dare they question the news Brahmin. Therefore, in an almost Kerry-esque post-convention hissy-fit, Danny-boy decided to correct the masses. For close to five minutes on his broadcast, Mr. Rather put his case to show that he was right and the rest of the world was wrong. It was rather pitiful to watch, actually.
Everybody knows the mainstream media is biased quite far to the left. Everybody except Dan, Tom, and Peter (and those people with fewer than 17 active brain cells, aka lib/dem/soc/commies), it would seem.
There's an old rule that if somebody lies in a court of law about one issue, you can pretty much ignore anything else s/he say. Dan Rather, and the entire mainstream news media, are in a much larger court--the court of public opinion.
Dan Rather lied. 60 Minutes II lied. They've all lied. Many times. This is just the latest example.
Folks, it's time that we pronounce sentence.
About the Writer: Doc Farmer is a writer and humorist who is also a moderator on ChronWatch's Forum. He formerly lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but now resides in Indiana. Doc receives e-mail at docfarmer9999@yahoo.co.uk.
This Article Was First Published In ChronWatch At: http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=9639
Hey!
(We've got a longer, more up-to-date list going now.)
It's up to 80+ errors and fraulaent points.
Constant
Bull
Sh*t
They are the National Enquirer on the boob tube.
Short Answer: Yes.
in short, yes. he will get away with airing forged documents and colluding with the kerry campaign.
sad.
can you imagine if britt hume had ran a forged document on Fox?
Ditto here.
The same thing will happen to Dan as happened to the guy that took all the docs from the National Archive in his pants.
In a few days it will be completely forgotten.
Can you provide a link? My bit was just an op/ed, but I'd love to see more details!
By the way, click on the link I provided for the original article. You'll see why it's better to see the "special" formatting that couldn't be transferred to this site...
He didn't get away with it at all. He might still be there but you know that most of the viewers see him as willing to fabricate a story to harm the president.
You left the word "Again" out of the headline.
Dan Rather is largely responsible, as Saigon bureau chief, for the American people forming the opinion that the Tet Offensive was a great victory for the Viet Cong/Army of North Vietnam when, in fact, it all but broke their backs. Rather has long been a merchant of fraud and deceit.
I find it interesting that he refuses to address the authenticity of documents he claims are authentic but for which he offers no proof -- because he has none -- and he refuses to explain how CBS (and other MSM outlets) received copies of the documents.
We ought to have people stand outside CBS and whenever he appears shout, "What's the frequency?"
I don't watch CBS, but do they have windows on the set that the public can see/be seen? Like Fox does?
Yes, Dan Rather will get away with his cute little stunt, but CBS and he are mortally wounded. He and CBS have no creditablilty whatsoever in the minds of millions of Americans. GW Bush will handily defeat John Kerry, and go on to secure USA freedom and safety from Muslim terrorists unfettered by the "traitor" Democrat Party. As GW Bush becomes a "lame duck" re-elected President, he will go forward unhampered or unimpeded by these treasonous Democrats. In the end the MSM loses bit time, with CBS the biggest loser of them all. If CBS had any smarts they would fire Dan Rather today!!!
It may seem crazy, but I think this will spell the end for Dan.
The libs may love him, but there are still moderate/undecided voter types who hate this type of dishonesty.
This is the on-going summary of the factual erros and forgery evidence.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1214226/posts
CBS is working from its institutional liberalism.
Walter Cronkite was able to spin the Tet Offensive into a defeat. Rather thought he could do the same thing with these obvious forgeries and have this report be the cornerstone of his "legacy" as the man who turned the Kampaign for Kerry.
Rather is just plain ignorant and this just prooves the left is living in a 9/10 delusion. FR has debunked political BS within hours and with far more reliable references.
Much superior to Rather's near tearful "because I said so."
Bump for later reading...
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