"I Am Buckhead": Newspaper Exposes Blog Folk Hero

MediaInfo ^ | 09/18/04 | E & P Staff

[Andy from Beaverton]

I Am Buckhead": Newspaper Exposes Blog Folk Hero

By E & P Staff

Published: September 18, 2004

NEW YORK It was the scoop of the day in the presidential campaign (which tells you something): The Los Angeles Times found Buckhead.

The paper reports that it has solved the mystery of who exactly posted the very first (and in some minds, very suspicious) blog blast at the credibility of the "60 Minutes" Killian memos. But as the Times put it, "it did not come from an expert in typography or typewriter history as some first thought."

Buckhead, as he was known at the Free Republic site, has been unmasked as Harry MacDougald, an Atlanta lawyer with strong ties to conservative Republican causes. He even helped draft the petition urging the Arkansas Supreme Court to disbar President Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

His identity, the Times says, "is likely to fuel speculation among Democrats that the efforts to discredit the CBS memos were engineered by Republicans eager to undermine reports that Bush received preferential treatment in the National Guard more than 30 years ago." GOP officials have denied this.

Reached by telephone by the Times on Friday, MacDougald, 46, confirmed that he is Buckhead but declined to answer questions.

MacDougald, a lawyer in Atlanta, is affiliated with two prominent conservative legal groups, the Federalist Society and the Southeastern Legal Foundation, where he serves on the legal advisory board.

Suspicions that MacDougald may have been tipped off have arisen because his quick comments on typography seemed to go far beyond his reputed expertise. He wrote that the memos purportedly written in the early 1970s by the late Lt. Col Jerry B. Killian were "in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman....The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software and personal computers," MacDougald wrote. "They were not widespread until the mid to late 90's. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn't used for personal memos to file. Even the Wang systems that were dominant in the mid 80's used monospaced fonts."

[Professional]

The truth never needs an agenda or a conspiracy.

With all due respect to Buckhead, it would have been a hundred other freepers eventually to spot the obvious: The docs didn't come from a typewriter, geesh, that isn't exactly rocket science...

[ladyjane]

So because Buckhead is a lawyer that precludes him from any other knowledge outside his "expertise"?

Journalism majors are not the sharpest crayons in the box.

[Bryan]

I've already asked on another thread, but I'll ask again...exactly HOW did the media find out who 'buckhead' was? Did he tell someone? This is what makes me anxious about even posting anything on the internet at all!

The slimeball reporters at the LA Times used FR's own search engine to comb through everything he's posted here in the past three years. There were little personal details that leaked out here and there in his posts. The lunatic left-wing fringe enjoys using them as weapons.

LEt's all be careful out there.

[mvpel]

With all due respect to Buckhead, it would have been a hundred other freepers eventually to spot the obvious: The docs didn't come from a typewriter, geesh, that isn't exactly rocket science...

Buckhead himself has repeated this very same point time and time again, but the conspiracy-theory addicts at the LA Slimes and DU don't seem to be listening.

[mvpel]

They found out using the same techniques of investigative journalism that Dan Rather should have used in vetting the forged documents.

It's not very hard to deduce someone's identity online if you set your mind to it, which is one of the reasons I don't bother to conceal mine, and haven't for the past 20 years.

[King Prout]

geesh.
journalists.
vain beasts, thinking they have a lock on such skills as research and incisive writing.

in college, I had to write, on average, two ten page research papers per week. Many others have had the same experience (probably more than journalists can claim)

since the advent of the net, I have grown quite proficient in using search engines to discover the history and development of many types of technologies.

these idiots think Buckhead's response, after a period of FOUR FULL HOURS, was both "quick" and "suspicious"?

what fools these mediots be!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Quick. Get the book deal done before the media goes after Bush's service record (again)!

We need to work on ideas for titles.

How about, "Rather Wouldn't Know His @$$ From a Hole In The Ground"?

Or, "The Media Uses Crayons"?

Ideas???

[patriciamary]

A democrat on fox said the blogger who broke the story had KKK ties,they are so disgusting they will try to destroy anyone in Kerry's way.

[Havoc]

We're on a site full of conservative republican activists and they just figured this out. And this passes for journalism. Next we'll get the "sky = blue, news at 11" announcement. What shilling morons. Alas, we have some of our own...

[fight_truth_decay]

..so the bottom line is the memo was bogus and cBS chose to run the 60 minute piece without taking the advice of their experts and only last minute request for verification from the White House. Of which they knew they would not receive, so seemed it was more of a warning or notification of something damaging coming out. Who verifies something like this in 3 hours? The buck stops at the media outlet from which the story was aired.

Rather will stay and others will be fired! Burkett is not well in perhaps more ways than one from recent reports...easy scapegoat. And if there really is a Lucy, she has some "splainin' to do".

Going off topic: If anyone is interested in following the state's Bush/Kerry vote (color map) http://www.electoral-vote.com/

[fight_truth_decay]

A democrat on fox said the blogger who broke the story had KKK ties

Just call em a moron, a scumbag and to go shove it! THK has taken that liberty in using such expressions in response. ;)

[AnAmericanMother]

Traitors' heads were nailed to Temple Bar, where Fleet Street meets the Strand, couple blocks north of the river - the western border of the City.

Them was the good old days . . . ;-)

[patriciamary]

Yes ,I heard it on fox, of coarse not one Democrat admits the story about Bush is wrong just the papers.

[ScholarWarrior]

I am Buckhead (Spartacus).

[Only1choice____Freedom]

an arcane, high-tech, state of the art device known as a "VCR,"

What!? No TIVO?

My best friend is TIVO.

[sc2_ct]

with strong ties to conservative Republican causes

A *REPUBLICAN*!?! Here on Free Republic!?! How could that ever happen? This is a place for talking about progressive socialist policies I thought

[lasereye]

Suspicions that MacDougald may have been tipped off have arisen because his quick comments on typography seemed to go far beyond his reputed expertise. He wrote that the memos purportedly written in the early 1970s by the late Lt. Col Jerry B. Killian were "in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman....The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software and personal computers," MacDougald wrote. "They were not widespread until the mid to late 90's. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn't used for personal memos to file. Even the Wang systems that were dominant in the mid 80's used monospaced fonts."

But I thought that stuff was all wrong, they did have typewriters that could do all that according to Dan.

[trumpeterhill]

I thought CBS was supposed to be conducting an "internal" investigation. Oh yea, that's postponed ... according to Les Moonves, the co-president of CBS parent company Viacom, who reported to an analyst meeting:
"the review of the CBS "60 Minutes II" report being done by former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief Louis Boccardi had no timetable for completion. But he said he did not want it to interfere with the Nov. 2 election.
"Obviously, it should be done probably after the election is over so that it doesn't affect what's going on," he told a Goldman Sachs media conference in New York.

A CBS spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the statement. But she pointed out that when CBS News President Andrew Heyward named Boccardi and Thornburgh to conduct the investigation of the Sept. 8 report, he said he hoped it would be completed in weeks rather than months."

[leadpenny]

Would you please explain yourself further? How were we used as pawns? Do you feel that way because it turns out Buckhead has ties to conservative Republican causes. Or is it because he's an attorney? Or is it because he's affiliated with the Federalist Society and the Southeastern Legal Foundation? Or is it because he helped draft the petition to disbar Clinton?

Or is it all of the above? Are professionals not allowed as anonymous private citizens to post their observations of FR?

Or do you think Buckhead was an RNC plant whose sole purpose on this site was to discredit the memo's?

Excellent way of framing the questions for 'alydar.' As you probably already know, 'alydar' has not posted since it's #16 on this thread. Oh, and it lives in Boston and it's sister lives in NH.

[alydar]

I'm not ducking anybody my friend. I've been in the hospital fighting for my life with cancer the last couple weeks so my priorities have been elsewhere. I don't think your describing me as an 'it' helps your case much,do you? If and when I'm capable of sitting up long enough to respond to all this I will spell out why I don't think this passes the smell test and we can have at it. You can disagree with my opinion without denigrating me...........PS 'It's sister' in N.H.is not my sister.I don't know what the hell you're talking about.