Posted on 09/15/2004 4:00:08 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - By relying on documents widely believed to be forgeries, CBS has given the nation another good example of the law of unintended consequences rearing its well-recognized head, writes columnist Rich Galen. Instead of damaging the Bush campaign, CBS has successfully knocked the Kerry campaign off its message since last Friday.
Forgery
By Rich Galen
CNSNews.com Commentary from Mullings.com
September 15, 2004
* Other than Dan "What's the Frequency, Kenneth" Rather, no one on the planet now believes that the documents proffered by CBS News about Lt. George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard are legitimate.
Dear Mr. Mullings:
We would appreciate your being a bit more precise in your writing. When you write "on the planet" do you mean on THIS planet or the planet more normally occupied by Mr. Rather -- and we think you know which planet we mean.
Signed,
The Seventh Planet from the Sun Society
* Because of their zeal to do serious damage - perhaps fatal damage - to the campaign of President Bush, the network of Edward R. Morrow and Walter Cronkite, went on the air having shown the memos to the Barrista at the local Starbucks AND (just to make extra certain they were on solid ground) double-checked them with the guy who sells pretzels in the summer and chestnuts in the winter over on West 57th.
* Everyone else who has ever examined documents for a living seems to be pretty clear that these memos have all the authenticity of Monopoly money - after having been washed through a Xerox machine eight or ten times.
* This is another wonderful example of the Law of Unintended Consequences rearing its well-recognized head. Instead of damaging the Bush campaign, CBS News has successfully knocked the campaign of Senator John Kerry off its message since last Friday.
* And, because at some point CBS is going to have to admit these documents are forgeries, the discussion will then shift to who prepared them, how they found their way to CBS and how they got on the air.
* CBS will claim some bogus "protection-of-sources" privilege which does not actually exist in law but only in custom. No one outside of CBS will be willing to argue that someone who provided forged documents should be protected under any circumstances.
* Let us, for a moment, discuss the possibility that sometime in the early 1970's a National Guard unit had available to it the latest and greatest in IBM electric typewriters -- which would have been necessary for these documents to be legit.
* As recently as this past April, I saw the lack of up-to-date equipment which National Guard and Reserve units brought with them to Iraq. This is not a new state of affairs.
* As regular readers know, I was in the Army National Guard from 1967-1973. About half of that in the New Jersey National Guard (an armor division - tanks) and half in the Ohio National Guard (anti-aircraft battery).
* When I enlisted, the active-duty army was beginning to be issued M-16 rifles. Know what my unit had? M-1 rifles. The very same rifles used in World War II. Probably the VERY rifles used in WW II.
* Furthermore, I was trained as a supply room clerk and unit armorer. At Ft. Lee, Virginia I learned how to build boxes for shipping, how to fix guns (from .38 caliber pistols to 50 caliber machine guns), and I learned to type. Thirty words per minute, as I remember, scored 100%.
* On a manual typewriter.
* It is possible that by 1972 electric typewriters had found their way onto the desks of company clerks across this great nation of ours. I just don't remember any more. But it is way, WAY unlikely that any Reserve or Guard unit -- short of a unit specifically dealing with production of written materials -- would have access to anything more than the most basic of typewriting equipment.
* Meanwhile, back on the campaign trail, yesterday's piece by Tom Raum of the Associated Press, demonstrated what the problems facing the Kerry campaign really are:
"President Bush has been solidifying his gains in states that once were dead heats, forcing both parties' campaigns to alter strategies as the electoral battleground shrinks. Democrat John Kerry is struggling to stay afloat in some hotly contested states, including Missouri, Wisconsin and Ohio, where polls show Bush pulling ahead."
* And that's no forgery.
* On the Secret Decoder Ring pagetoday: An unbelievably boring lesson on typewriters and keyboards and, if you've missed Al Gore, you'll want to see today's Catchy Caption of the Day.
Copyright 2004, Richard A. Galen
W SHOULD HOLD A NEWS CONFERENCE AND REFUSE ADMITANCE TO ANYONE FROM CBS!!
THAT WOULD END GUNGA DAN'S CARREER RIGHT THERE
Bump.
At least he wasn't wearing pajamas.
NICE!
Dubya? Ya listening amigo?
Necessary but not sufficient. It's been shown that the Selectric Composer cannot reproduce the documents, not even close.
"W SHOULD HOLD A NEWS CONFERENCE AND REFUSE ADMITANCE TO ANYONE FROM CBS!!"
In Bush's second term he should make the CBS stooge sit in the back row...next to Helen Thomas. Whoever it is can rub Helen's feet while they listen to OTHERS questions being answered.
Has everyone forgotten that USA Today was also sent copies of the memos from an independant source. Now that it is almost conclusive that it is a forgery, shouldn't USA Today release the name of their source as well?
Dear Mr. Galen:
As the proud manufacturers of Monopoly, a board game that has been entertaining and educating people around the world since 1934, we were shocked and outraged for you to compare the authenticity of Monopoly money to the forged documents currently being peddled by Dan Rather and CBS.
True, Monopoly is money is not, technically speaking, legal tender. However, it is a respected currency, valued and accepted by millions of avid Monopoly players. Over the years, it has been used to purchase such prestigious properties as Park Place and Boardwalk innumerable times, along with countless hotels and homes. Americans of more modest means have used Monopoly to get their first leg up on the American dream, using it to purchase starter properties such as Baltic and Vermont.
We hereby call upon you to withdraw your slur, or face the wrath of our four sets of lawyers.
Very truly yours,
Malcolm "Top Hat" Towbridge
President, Parker Brothers
Kitty Kelly's coke story was a planned wake-wave-follower -- she has the Guard forgeries too in her book -- that inclusion was the link. Once the forgered memos are out there and validated on the Media's table, it would have made the coke story germane and presentable.
NBC -- Today -- was thus a player too, But they had the damn fine sense to bail out quickly after the memos were proven and broadcast to be absolute frauds.
The forged memos were the leading punch. Thereafter the "Fortunate Son" ad blitz and a deluge of talking talking talking with this National Guard service as an issue.
O'Reilly? Yeah, Bill O'Reilly. He was laying the groundwork to "switch" to camp Kerry. "I'm an Independent" and such. Once the guard memos were ut there, then Bill O'R would take the final step and go agin Bush.
(All the above just my opinion!)
And it's my opinion that the well-intentioned application of Congressional hearings also has the risk of unintended consequences.
That's my doctored image with Kerry's head on Nixon.
Now it's Kerry as Nixon wearing a Dan Rather mask.
How appropriate.
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