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Posted on 09/08/2026 5:37:01 AM PDT by T Ruth
***
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. CBS, Rather and the left clung to their story as long as they could. They even invented the “fake but accurate” standard to defend the forged documents. CBS and its surrogates belittled the bloggers but ended up making them famous. Conservative bloggers would embrace the “pajamas” epithet thrown at them during the battle – some of whom still use it today. With persistence, they established that CBS was wrong. The documents were forgeries, and CBS personnel committed misconduct in airing the story. Investigations and lawsuits and an independent panel followed.
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. Its lie was discovered and exposed very publicly over two weeks.
***
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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... and FR played a prominent role in exposing CBS's lies.
See also: Rather Shameful
Online commenters almost immediately took issue with the authenticity of the documents. Writing under the pseudonym Buckhead on the Free Republic site, Atlanta attorney Harry MacDougald first alleged that the documents appeared to be fabrications created by a modern word processor, not typewritten documents from the old files of Killian as advertised.
bump
I was here. Wonder if someone can find that discussion.
Ping!
BUCKHEAD! 👍🏻👏🏻
Everyone knows that the media “news” cycles existed to influence politics, whether they consciously acknowledged it or not.
Where did the phrase “October surprise” come from?
Sure, the ‘source’ of the surprise might not be portrayed as media, but the media’s purpose is to exploit it.
I’ve said it a thousand times (not really) and I’ll say it again. The fact that almost all of the “news” networks run 90%+ of their content about politics tells you all you need to know about the “news” media.
Article was written in 2020 but it’s timeless.
Trump should pound it home while Rather is still alive. To think Bush turned the other cheek unlike his father-remember that episode?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDED1TdwZK4
Check out the 16 minute point. Rather was badgering him the whole time.
HOORAY Buckhead
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210662/posts?page=47#47
“Howlin, 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.”
Had they searched the thrift shops for a 1971 electric typewriter to do the job, they might have gotten away with it.
Yep. And they were coordinating with the Kerry campaign, which was corroborated later.
Whats the frequency Kenneth?
It’s almost like the press, I don’t know, is the enemy of the people. One side was fake but accurate but the Swifties telling the absolute truth about Kerry were evil and were slimed by media toadies.
I hated Rather with his stupid sign-off of saying “Courage!” as if we were all sitting at home quaking in our seats until he told us to have courage.
Dan Rather and everyone behind that fraud should have been sitting in prison cells for years, stripped of all assets, and then deported to England, grateful that they weren't hanged for treason.
It wasn't just a fraudulent document, they forged a military document from the Texas Air National Guard.
That thread was epic! It cemented my admiration and respect for FR and for the FReepers that posted here. I was lurking and observing back then... and Buckhead was fantastic on that thread. Thanks for bringing this up again.
I remember that. I wasn’t an active participant here, but I watched as some very talented and intelligent people here took Rather and company apart piece by piece. It was impressive.
I remember. very well.
The attempt by Rather and SeeBS to subvert the 2004 election with a fraud and lies marked them as traitors to the United States of America. Since then, Rather and SeeBS repeatedly re-affirmed their loyalty lies elsewhere than with the United States.
I remember ratherhate and this made up, headpiece story. I am grateful to the author of this article for reposting and reminding the public how vicious CBS News is.
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