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Why it's important to remember Rathergate
American Thinker ^ | October 5, 2020 | David Lanza

Posted on 09/08/2024 5:18:03 AM PDT by T Ruth

An important anniversary [is today]. This anniversary carries implications for how we receive news, how political campaigns are conducted, and the credibility of almost everything we see or hear from the media.

On September 8, 2004, CBS’s “60 Minutes” used forged government documents as the basis for a story that attacked the military record of then-President George W. Bush. It was bad enough that CBS used forged government documents, but what made it worse was that CBS aired this story during the presidential election and timed the airing to coincide with the rollout of Democrat John Kerry’s “favorite son” campaign theme. CBS thus provided the “news” upon which the Democrat candidate based his attack ads. The CBS story was quickly disproven and eventually forced CBS into personnel changes and investigations. Dan Rather was forced into retirement a few months later. But CBS did not give up before a lengthy battle in which bloggers demonstrated that the font and other features in the forged documents did not exist in 1972 (the date placed on the forgeries).

The battle over the truth became a story in itself. The truth about the font spread like wildfire through the blogosphere and the internet, quickly picking up steam. ...

The result was a victory for the truth and a blow to the establishment media. CBS was proven to have lied to influence a presidential election. ...

Why is a 2004 scandal at CBS still relevant [twenty] years later? Even without Dan Rather, the network has not truly changed. The other networks are just as bad – if not worse. Rathergate serves as one example of what the establishment media do. They lie. They lie regularly, and they lie during election years to help elect Democrats. ...

***

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 60minutes; billburkett; buckhead; bush; cbs; cbssedition; danblather; danrather; drivebymedia; electioninterference; fakebutaccurate; font; forgery; freerepublic; harrymacdougald; marymapes; media; mediahoaxes; msm; pajamabloggers; rather; ratherbiased; rathergate; theylie; wearebuckhead
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To: Uncle Miltie

I will never forget that post. My god. What a time that was.


81 posted on 09/08/2024 8:02:13 PM PDT by Free Louie
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To: Jim W N

Buckhead is lawyer Harry MacDougald. I have no idea if he’s still on FR, but you can look him up by name online; he’s been fairly prominent as one of the lawyers involved in the Georgia election interference lawfare case.

I don’t know anything about TankerKC.


82 posted on 09/08/2024 10:16:34 PM PDT by Alvin Diogenes
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To: T Ruth

FR was on top of it all back then. I think we’ve gotten older?


83 posted on 09/08/2024 10:25:20 PM PDT by Az Joe (Live free or die)
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To: T Ruth

I can’t believe it’s 20 years already. I remember clear as day Freepers posting his name “Dan RaTHer” like that.


84 posted on 09/09/2024 4:38:33 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free, the USA will never have equal justice under the law)
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To: Flag_This

Election interference is legal for leftists, didn’t you know that? Hillary can claim Russia collusion, can even use it to participate in an attempted coup, Biden can use the FBI and justice dept. to interfere in the election time and time again, and the one guy who DIDN’T interfere in the election is the guy who gets indicted: Donald Trump


85 posted on 09/09/2024 4:41:23 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free, the USA will never have equal justice under the law)
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To: Chickensoup

Heady days then!


86 posted on 09/09/2024 5:19:52 AM PDT by Komarlady (Your mileage may vary...)
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To: Chickensoup

Me, too! One of FR’s finest hours.


87 posted on 09/09/2024 5:25:37 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (I'm voting for the convicted felon with the pierced ear. )
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To: Joe Marine 76

“Superscripts came with MicroSoft Word in the mid-’90s?”

Before that. Gates wasn’t the first in line for this. In the ‘70us, I used word processing by Wang in the ‘70s with proportional spacing, and the MTST/MTSC by IBM.


88 posted on 09/09/2024 5:37:12 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (I'm voting for the convicted felon with the pierced ear. )
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To: jurroppi1

“I remember reading it almost real time”

I remember where I was when I first heard the news. I was listening to Rush on my Walkman-type thingie at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills in an outdoor garden area. I was so happy that Rather got caught.


89 posted on 09/09/2024 5:39:26 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (I'm voting for the convicted felon with the pierced ear. )
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To: T Ruth

📌


90 posted on 09/09/2024 6:19:27 AM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by 🙏 the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18. Nazarite warriors. 10.5.6.5 These Days)
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To: The Truth Will Make You Free

This is just one example of MSM being nothing but the propaganda ministry of the Democrat party which they have been for decades and it has only gotten worse. It has been a near miracle that the opposition ever wins. Thank God for Elon and the others for mobilizing an alternative.


91 posted on 09/09/2024 7:26:27 AM PDT by iamgalt
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To: T Ruth

Here is a reason why its important to remember Rathergate. At the time, Bush/Cheney was evil incarnate to the Left. The Democrats, and their media minions, had told every lie possible to demonize Bush and Cheney, including the Rathergate lies. The Right rallied around Bush and fought back. 20 years later, how to Bush and Cheney repay conservatives? By buying into the same BS lies about Trump that the media told about them 20 years ago. By endorsing Harris or making a non-endorsement endorsement, in effect signaling that they believe what the media says about Trump. And 20 years from now, there will a new Republican president who is demonized just like every prior Republican president.


92 posted on 09/09/2024 8:28:41 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: ansel12

JournOList.


93 posted on 09/09/2024 9:54:39 AM PDT by Lazamataz (If you are upset the bullet missed, contact me immediately. I'll make sure your bullet doesn't.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Yes it was


94 posted on 09/09/2024 10:52:27 AM PDT by Chickensoup
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To: T Ruth

95 posted on 09/09/2024 12:08:36 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: T Ruth

Yup, Freepers exposed Dan Rather / cBS.

I watched it unfold in the threads here.

Great work Freepers!


96 posted on 09/09/2024 4:16:40 PM PDT by tsowellfan
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To: T Ruth

I joined Free Republic about a month before this broke...I was immediately hooked!


97 posted on 09/09/2024 10:45:40 PM PDT by Zeppelin (Keep on FReepin' on...)
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To: T Ruth
the font and other features in the forged documents did not exist in 1972 (the date placed on the forgeries).

Not exactly. The Times Roman font used in the fake memo (and which is the default Word font) did exist in 1972. There was no typewriter that used it in 1972 however.

98 posted on 09/10/2024 7:09:31 AM PDT by lasereye
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To: T Ruth
The very fact the documents were NOT in the fixed Courier font used by even most IBM Selectric typewriters of the day immediately raised suspicions. In fact, it wasn't until the late 1980's you could actually print documents with that neat of a proportionally spaced font using an Apple Macintosh with a laser printer.
99 posted on 09/10/2024 8:14:40 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (.FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
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To: MortMan

Yep. And IIRC, Tucker uncovered that.


100 posted on 09/10/2024 8:58:27 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Nessun Dorma.)
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