Posted on 09/16/2004 3:34:36 AM PDT by RandallFlagg
In what appears to be a case of a torpedo reversing course, documents that formed the basis for a 60 Minutes report alleging misconduct by President Bush when he served in the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s have been debunked as crude forgeries by document experts and the widow and son of the officer who allegedly wrote them.
(Excerpt) Read more at showbizdata.com ...
How could the White House "dispute" their authenticity?
They have no way of knowing what some officer supposedly wrote to his personal file 30 years ago. Bush wouldn't have been a party to or witnessed said document. The officer could have written anything, true or false, and it would not have change the "authenticity" of the physical document. Just because a document is authentic doesn't mean it contains truth.
It is the presses job to identify forged documents. A forged document is simply a lie no matter how you twist it.
These writers can't be that stupid.
Yeah they can.
These people Hate Bush so much they just can't see their idiocy. And you can't say Rather was fooled by this because he continues to think that the "Content" of the forged docs are correct!
He has sealed his fate.
I see more of a darker purpose beyond simple stupidity.
Not only are the documents forged, but the important points made in them are clear fabrications. Specifically, the two important points, harped on endlessly by CBS and the other liberal media, are:
1. Bush disobeyed a direct order of his commanding officer. The memo states that Bush is ordered to appear for a physical on May 15. Bush did not do so, and the media concludes that Bush disobeyed the order, and so was insubordinate. There is only one problem: It did not happen. Other pilots point out that pilots were not ordered to appear for a physical. The deadline for the physical was established by Air Force rules, and was the pilot's birthday. The pilot was required by rule to appear for a physical every year on or before his birthday. Bush's birthday was July 6, so it would not have been appropriate to order him to appear for a physical on May 15. Of course, Bush never appeared for a July 6 physical either, but that's because he had already transferred out of the Texas Air National Guard by that time. The obvious conclusion is that the part of the memo which orders Bush to appear for a physical is a fabrication.
2. Bush's commanding officer was asked to sugar coat Bush's record and give him a rating even though Bush was absent. In the memos, Killian expresses consternation that he is being asked to rate Bush even though Bush was absent. The implication which is drawn by the media is that Bush's performance was substandard. The implication drawn by the Democrats is that Bush was AWOL. However, that aspect of the memos is also a clear fabrication. The reaons is that Killian had no reason to be consternated by Bush's absence because Killian himself had already signed an order (which is clearly authentic, and looks completely different from the forged orders), which authorized Bush to transfer out of the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama National Guard. So why would he now be upset that Bush was not there? It makes no sense, and was obviously a fabrication by the forger.
Dan Rather's insistence that the orders may be fake but the information is trues is itself obviously a lie. This whole episode really is worse than Watergate. It's like Watergate with a complicit media. In Watergate, most of the people went to jail because they lied to investigators or to Congress. As in Watergate, I think we need an investigation by the DOJ and by Congress, though I would suggest that we wait until after the election to get it going in earnest. No sense in risking a liberal backlash at this point in time.
About the only people still too stupid to see that these are forgeries are those at seeBS, including the president of seeBS
Killian's son says that Knox was a "pool typist", not Jerry Killian's father's "Right Hand", as Dan Rather asserted
Last week, Knox told the Houston Chronicle that while she was aware of a pattern of favoritism in the TANG, she had no knowledge of the particulars for George W. Bush.
Knox says that Bush was "Selected, Not Elected", and strongly opposes his re-election.
Yesterday Knox told Dan Rather that she remembered a heck of a lot about the case of George W. Bush, and had direct knowledge of the particulars of his case, directly contradicting her statements of last week.
And to buttress the authenticity of its stupendous malfeasance of journalism, CBS trots out a woman who knew President Bush when he was in his 20's and she was probably menopausal.
Bump.
The darker purpose is the stupidity! Something is not right however, Bush's numbers keep going up, Rather has got to be hurting Kerry with this.
Unless they're trying to energize their base.
Punk'd ain't the word for it.
Journalists are supposed to make efforts to verify the truth of what they are reporting. (At least in theory.)
In this case CBS and Dan Rather were so giddy that they had something on Bush that they just ran with it without doing some basic rudimentary analysis (or ignoring any analysis that contradicted their preconceived notions).
The fact that Rather hasn't been forced to resign over this says legions about the bias of CBS and the state of the media today.
It has been shown conclusively that the documents could not be authentic. It is probably not quite correct to say that they are "proven" forgeries until the forger is identified and makes admission.
(spewing coffee at the screen)
It looks like they're run several stories on this topic now. You know the Tiffany Network is in trouble when its journalistic integrity is being called out by showbizdata.com
The first National Enquirer headline to address Rathergate will be a keeper.
LOL. Their base was energized to the point of frenzy before this broke. Kerry's campaign is beginning to resemble a Stooges routine in their desperation driven hysteria (except there are way more than three).
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