Posted on 05/01/2008 6:38:52 AM PDT by BufordP
On 4/11/08, The Newseum opened its new quarters in Washington, DC. I was specifically interested in an exhibit in the Internet, TV and Radio Gallery. The exhibit was "Bias at CBS" and it featured the September 2004 "60 Minutes II" Dan Rather report aimed at discrediting President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. This 9/04 report was meant to hurt Bush's re-election chances in November, 2004.
Comments among FReepers quickly exposed inconsistencies in the documents and led to bloggers on the internet exposing the report as deeply flawed, as well as using forged documents. These inconsistencies ultimately forced CBS to retract its story.
The exhibit describes "how conservative blogs flexed their muscle and played a most significant role in the 2004 election "by discrediting documents used in Rather's "60 Minutes II' report.
Below is a copy of Buckhead's famous post #47 which started the unraveling of Dan Rather's story. His post is displayed as part of the exhibit. The red text are working links.
NYTIMES ^ | 09/09/04 | KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 11:10:56 PM by Pikamax
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard came under renewed scrutiny on Wednesday as newfound documents emerged ....
To: HowlinHowlin, every single one of these memos to file is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman.
In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts.
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. 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.
I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old.
This should be pursued aggressively.
It was thrill to see the key role played by Free Republic in exposing a media lie against Bush at a pivotal moment right before the November election. The Newseum will draw a lot of tourists and many will see this.
Oh very cool.
RS
Thanks STARWISE, it’s great to see Free Republic posters get the credit they deserve!
I was a lurker on Free Republic at the time. I remember my dismay when the story came out and how depressed I was. I wanted G.W.Bush to win and was praying.
Then out came this info! I was jumping for joy that Free Republic was available and able to bring about the proof.
The beginning of the end for cBS and others, with their hold on news. THANK GOD for Free Republic!
Lol, he’ll never get over that!
This is AWESOME news!
Very nice graphic, too!
Thank you so much for the ping!
Bumping your post, potlatch!
I totally agree!
Thanks for the report Buford; if I hadn’t had an reliable eyewitness (Buford ???) I wouldn’t have believed the enemedia would have been willing to set up such an exhibit. Congratulations to ALL the freepers and bloggers who helped destroy this lie and this liar!
Posted on 09/10/2004 6:51:47 AM PDT by doug from upland
Post 47 would become infamous
Well, at least to Dan Rather and CBS
There's a FReeper named Buckhead and we had jumped on what he said
We all know Dan Rather's in a mess
Post 47 goes down in history
And it's clear that Old Media's quite afraid
Because as you all can see there's no more monopoly
They can't justify why they get paid
There's bright people who are on the FreeRepublic site
Working hard, digging hard, fighting for what's right
We had paid attention to the nuances, nuances...Kerry should take delight
We know "shove it" from a loony witch can't get a pass
Yes she has, yes she has money but no class
We will show that woman who's the idiot...it isn't us
TaRAYza, you are so full of gas
Post 47 had been read by Fidel
And the commondante knew that Danny is screwed
He said, "You are still my star...come and have a fine cigar
And our friendship, friendship, friendship, yeah...our friendship will be renewed"
Lol, bump!
BUMP forever!
Definitely proud to be a freeper. Can’t believe I’ve been freeping 8 years now. Time flies. Time well spent here. Learning.
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