Posted on 09/13/2004 4:32:16 PM PDT by RatherBiased.com
CBS News has gone into full "CYA" mode. After being attacked continuously for the past six days by everyone ranging from posters at FreeRepublic.com, to Web sites like this one, Powerline, and Instapundit, to large media organizations like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and his network television rivals, CBS mounted another defense of itself tonight.
Two points stand out: 1) Rather finally stated that not all of his critics are politically motivated, 2) Rather's report did not feature a single quotation from any of its critics, something that an objective news organization would do if it were covering the story of accussations made by political campaigns against each other. For CBS Evening News viewers who have not been following the scandal, this must have been a strange spectacle. To receive no background on the story and only one side of it.
Instant transcript follows:
Rather: Coming up on the "CBS evening news," more on the controversy the president's national guard record. It's tonight's "inside story." [commercial break]
Besides checking on john kerry's service record, CBS has been checking president bush's service in the national guard, including whether or not he did or did not fulfill his commitment. We're gathering information, asking questions and probing. CBS is also addressing questions about documents used to corroborate some of the information in our reporting. Documents used to corroborate some of the information in our reporting. Some of these questions come from people who are not active political partisans. It is tonight's inside story. At a democratic national press conference today, some of the shots fired at military men were aimed at president bush's national guard service.
But official records showed he skipped a physical and was grounded. Do you know how hard it is to get your annual physical? I took 37 of them in a row.
Rather: There has also been criticism of the new documents obtained by CBS. But CBS used several techniques to make sure these papers should be taken seriously. Talking to handwriting and document analysts and other experts who strongly insist that the documents could have be created in the 70s.
Everything in those documents that people are saying can't be done, as you said, 32 years ago, is totally false. Not true. Like I said, proportion al spacing was available, super scripts was available as a custom feature. Proportional spacing between lines was available. You could order it any way you like.
Rather: Richard katz, a software designer found other indications in the documents. He noticed the lower case l is used in documents instead of the actual numeral one. That would be difficult to reproduce on the computer today.
If you were doing this a week ago or a month ago on a normal laser jet printer, it wouldn't work. The font wouldn't be available to you.
Rather: Katz noted the documents have the superscript th and a regular sized th. That would be common on a typewriter, not a computer.
Richard Katz: There is one document from may of 1972 which contains a normal al th at the top. To produce that in microsoft word, you would have to go out of your way to type the letters and then turn the th setting off or back over them and type them again. Rather: CBS news relied on an analysis of the contents of the documents themselves to determine the contents authenticity. It is in line with is known about the service and dates. For instance, the official record shows that mr. Bush was suspended from flying on august 1, 1972. That date matches the one on a memo given to CBS news, ordering that mr. Bush he be suspended. Shortly after "60 minutes" broadcast the new documents last week, "usa today" obtained another new document. In the memo dated february 2, 1972, colonel killian asked to be "updated as soon as possible on flight certifications, specifically bush." That appears to be in line with newly released white house documents that indicate changes in mr. Bush's flight certification in early 1972. An analysis shows that instead of exclusively flying the f-102 he'd been certified in, the president began additional training in a lower level plane and flight simulators. CBS news asked the white house today to answer a number of questions: Did a friend of the bush family use his influence with the texas house speaker to get george W. Bush into the national guard? Did lieutenant bush refuse an order to take a required physical? Was he suspended for failing to perform up to standards? And did he, in fact, complete his commitment to the guard? In reply, a white house spokesman told CBS' john roberts: "As you know, we have repeatedly addressed these issues, including during the interview you conducted on behalf of mr. Rather last wednesday." The white house and the bush-cheney campaign always point out president bush received an honorable discharge. What is in the "60 minutes" report CBS news believes to be true and believes thethentic. Straight ahead on the "CBS evening news," they're supposed to inspect your bags, not steal from them. He got caught red handed.
Yeah, it's very difficult to type a lower case "l" in a computer document. l87th. Boy, that's tough to do. My word, his arguments get weaker and weaker.
Is this Rather's version #2, 3 or 4 of the story?
OK, Dan, produce a duplicate that works as well as the many MS Word overlays all over the net.
Not only Rather biased, but also Rather stupid.
Thanks Dan, for this glorious moment in history: The day CBS and rest of the utterly corrupt Old Media died.
Hang in there Dan!!!
Keep on denying what is no longer in dispute.
Let's make this election a referendum about whether or not folks believe the documents are forgeries.
Dan's only chance was to keep his mouth shut and let his Friday broadcast stand. By responding again tonight, he has done himself in. The precedent is set.
What the heck?
See BS, hear BS, speak BS
Visit the CBS Take Action Site!
List of sponsors, emails, and more...
Make your voice heard here, where it hurt$.
Well, that does it for me, folks. I'm voting for John Kerry. When given the choice between a man that didn't make a doctor's appointment and one that admitted to war crimes I'm taking the war criminal every time.
I shouldn't have to do this, but: </sarcasm>
Looks like he read my complaint to the FCC with his comments about the laser printer :)
CBS News' own website says AP expert "virtually certain" the docs were produced by a computer.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/06/politics/main641481.shtml
Lol, I skimmed over your post and read the very last sentence before reading what was right before it, which I found pretty amusing.
As for Rather, it seems to me that he really only answered the comments of one person who supported the claim that the docs are real, instead of the many more claims about the various discrepanies in them.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
They've given up even trying.
As for "114th" requiring typing several more keystrokes to generate that "114th" using a word processing program...somehow I don't think I'd break a sweat doing that, either. It may just mean that the forger was sloppy--and given the documents, I think people have already inferred that.
This is weak... incredibly, incredibly weak. Trivially refuted. So trivially refuted that it strains credibility to think Rather would even present this.
The recent actions of the Kerry campaign have been so nonsensical that people have suggested, only half tongue-in-cheek, that maybe they were deliberately trying to lose. Now comes the question: is CBS deliberately trying to destroy its reputation? Is every single person on the left side of the political spectrum a mole?
The lamest part of the presentation was the claim that Kerry's records have been investigated without pointing out that Kerry is the one who has not released his records.
What a continuing joke DR and CBS are.
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