Posted on 09/21/2007 1:59:19 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
We’ll get to the latest ethically-blind, unintentional humor at Duke University in a moment. Let’s begin with the same thing as demonstrated in the $70 million case Dan Rather just filed against CBS.
The theory of American law is that adversaries – plaintiff and defendant in a civil case – will contest facts, witnesses and experts before the trier of fact (judge or jury) and truth will result. It is not just people like me who’ve been attorneys forever, but also laymen who read the papers, who know this theory sometimes fails in practice.
The theory will fail on purpose in this case, because neither side is interested in proving whether the documents in this case were forgeries that any competent reviewer would have identified at once. CBS wants to prove they were questionable, and shouldn’t have been used. Rather wants to prove they “were not proved false” and therefore should have been used.
I have a personal stake in this. I was part of the small group of bloggers, beginning on FreeRepublic.com right after the Rather broadcast on CBS, who demonstrated that the documents were forgeries, and ridiculously obvious ones. I knew this the moment I read the first post by “Buckhead,” an able lawyer from north of Atlanta.
I was in print media production at the time the “Bush National Guard” documents were allegedly produced by his commanding officer. I knew the only machines at that time which could produce the exact typesetting displayed in these documents cost about $50,000 and were owned only by printing firms. Such a piece of equipment, which cost more than the average house, would not have been available in the HQ of any National Guard unit.
Could the typewriters available at the Guard have possibly produced these documents? Absolutely not. The two typewriters it had then, are known. Neither could match the typesetting of the IBM Selectric, then the most sophisticated typewriter in existence. And even the IBM Selectric, which I worked with in my office, could not have matched these documents.
So, I read Buckhead’s comment, slapped my forehead and said, “Of course. He’s right. These are forgeries. I should have seen it myself.”
Back to the case of Rather v. CBS. Every court of general jurisdiction has the power to appoint Special Masters to examine particular facts in a case and report back. Masters are routinely used when the central issue is highly technical. But there’s another reason to use a Master. When there’s reason to believe both the parties in a case have cause to slant the central facts, the court can and should appoint a Master to make an unbiased examination.
This case is not just about Rather against CBS. It is also about the integrity, or lack of integrity, of the American news media. For about a week after this broadcast, the media circled the wagons to protect both Rather and CBS. Not until the blogosphere forced the issue, did the media change their conclusions.
So, the judge on this case will, in my opinion, be derelict in his duties if he (or she) does not appoint a Special Master in this case. The Master’s assignment should be to determine if the “Guard” documents are forgeries, and if so, how obvious was that? Neither Rather nor CBS may like the results of that examination. But the American press will benefit greatly though unwillingly, from that investigation.
While we are on the subject of “justice,” here’s a brief comment about Duke University. Duke has just announced that it will “invest $1.25 million over the next five years for its law school to establish a center devoted to the promotion of justice in the criminal justice system and the training of lawyers to fight against wrongful convictions.” President Richard H. Brodhead made this stunning announcement this week.
If Duke is honestly interested in promoting justice and avoiding wrongful charges and convictions, it would have spent $36.08 to accomplish the same result immediately, rather than over the next five years. That would be $35.67 to mail a letter to each of the 87 faculty members who published the full-page ad asuming the students to be obviously guilty. The letters would say, “Your services are no longer required.” (There were 88 such professors, but one recanted and apologized after the NC Attorney General dismissed all charges and apologized.)
The last 41 cents would be for President Brodhead to mail a letter to the Board of Trustees, letting them know he was leaving, after his failure to deal honestly with the situation.
In the alternative, Duke could name the new Center the O.J. Simpson Justice Center. The decision rule is ever so simple. Black defendants are innocent. White defendants are guilty. Meanwhile, Duke and CBS are once-proud institutions that are dying a slow suicide. Both forgot the lesson that Scottish poet Robert Burns taught in 1786 in “To a Louse”:
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!”
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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John / Billybob
> So, the judge on this case will, ...
It’s not going to get that far.
This is probably a Discovery blackmail ploy.
CBS will settle.
They do not want to reveal the chain of custody
of the fake-but-true hoax documents.
See also earlier:
Dan Rather Praises Peter Arnett, Claims ‘Most People’ Believe His Story
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1900267/posts
Put nicely regarding the Duke 88 minus 1 and President Broadhead. They and the still silent Duke Trustees all need to go.
They do not want to reveal the chain of custody
of the fake-but-true hoax documents.
::::::
I love it. The bent minds of the left and their faux reality — the present and future the way they want it...not the way the real facts have it.
Sadly we have a society and legal system that puts up with this charade of lying lunacy from the left and does not drive home the NEED FOR THE REAL FACTS AND TRUTH. Let us hope this farse between two scumbag parties gets trashed and maybe saves just a little respect for our very liberal legal system.
bump
Cavuto gave this lying turd the first 15 minutes of his show. Dan-boy lied all the way, like he has done since 1968.
Nothing but a Cronkite wannabe with a fetish for Baab Woot-wut.
I was on the 60 minutes thread that night, I started out fuming mad at Rather’s cheap shot. I went to bed early the next morning grinning from ear to ear.
That was a great night of brainstorming by many people, I just glad I got to witness the de-construction of Gunga Dan.
Any reasonably attentive person who has looked at business correspondence since 1972 did exactly the same thing. Once that was pointed out and and you looked at the documents, the discussion was over.
I think the reason a lot of reporters are oblivious to that fact is they use typewriters, newsprint and their word processors, which are probably NOT based in Microsoft fonts, so when it is mentioned to them they just get stupid looks on their faces.
He's right, too that CBS will NOT try to answer that question. They like the fact that there are a LOT of stupid people who give the documents the benefit of the doubt.
That would be some serious "BLING" today!
WORD UP!
Which faculty member apologized?
Great post Congressman.
>> They do not want to reveal the chain of custody
>> of the fake-but-true hoax documents.
> I love it.
Not only will CBS settle, they may ask the real
perps and passers to help pay for it.
If the DNC wants to keep this under the rug,
it’ll cost ‘em.
Excellent piece, CBB.
What’s missing are the criminal charges.
Dan Rather forged a U.S. military order (for GWB to report to get his medical). He should be in jail.
That’s not freedom of the press, that’s a crime.
Were Mapes and Rather working as journalists or as DNC political operatives? That’s not hard to answer.
http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2004/09/22/lockhart_contacted_memo_scandal_figure/
“. . .Rather’s source for the documents—a screwball, disgruntled former Texas air guardsman—”
Bill Burkett was an ARMY National Guard puke. He was clueless about procedures and paperwork of the AIR National Guard. His only exposure to the Air Guard was incidental, during his tenure at the Texas State Headquarters where there are some Air Guard members sprinkled among mostly Army Guard types.
John / Billybob
Sorry. Thanks for the correction.
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