[Common Tator]

Can you imagine anyone with much skill doing this bad a forgery? Doing it on Microsoft word? If you are 50 years old or older how do you fail to remember that computer printers are not typewriters? If you are in your 20s don't you research what was in use in 1973? Would I try to take a picture of a guy in 1973 by having him sitting in a 1976 car?

This whole thing does not ring true.

The more I think about this the more I think this must be some sort of setup or con act. I wonder if someone really hates Rather. Perhaps a former employee of CBS news. Could it be that CBS bought the story? Could CBS have had Rather's daughter offering to buy dirt on Dubya?Could someone think hey a half hour's work at Kinkos and a pitch to Rather's daughter, would be followed by some cash from Rather? What else explains the story? Could Kerry have been offering bucks for dirt on Bush and an enterprising Word user... decided to try to make a few bucks?... and they fell for it?

What if the Kerry Campaign was trying to buy dirt on Bush .. and bought a forgery. What if the Kerry people vouched for the fake Documents being valid. Would Rather believe a top Kerry staffer over his own hired experts?

It appears Rather fell for some sort of Con, and is now between a rock and a hard place.

Something has to explain CBS buying these very sloppy forgeries. The source had to be very very believable to CBS

[Socratic]

"It appears Rather fell for some sort of Con..."

Rather IS the con!

[oiler]

Something has to explain CBS buying these very sloppy forgeries. The source had to be very very believable to CBS
I do not think the forger ever believed the documents would have been posted on the internet for all to scrutinize.
He may have thought that CBS would focus on content and merely flash the documents during the broadcast.

[okie01]

The more I think about this the more I think this must be some sort of setup or con act. I wonder if someone really hates Rather.

Surely, you're not suggesting that Bernie Goldberg is behind this...:)

[Dolphy]

It appears Rather fell for some sort of Con, and is now between a rock and a hard place.

He didn't fall, he participated. If it could be discovered here within an hour that the documents weren't likely authentic, CBS had to know as well. Rather didn't trust his source on the documents, in my opinion, he trusted the "recreations" they would be able to do if only they had a vehicle from which to launch the story. So you get Barnes, a partisan hack and some faked memos.

Here is the thing that makes me believe that CBS might really have a hand in writing this fiction...why are they the ones who got the story? If somebody is out there with fake memos don't you think they would have been shopped? But the story itself has been shopped in as much as it's around the internet without the current players. Rather himself gives this theory merit by saying there is too much focus on the authenticity of the memos, not the substance. Tonight he did it again by pushing the substance with a woman who admitted they were fakes. Rather has a history of doing this.

[jimthewiz]

It makes sense if the DNC had memos, or at least knowledge of them, weeks ago as has been reported. Then the DNC either had Birkitt fax the memos to CBS or got them and faxed them from Kinko's so they wouldn't trace back to DNC headquarters. If the DNC vouched for them, there is the unimpeachable source.