Posted on 09/10/2004 3:18:38 PM PDT by Howlin
Edited on 09/10/2004 4:53:58 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Have at it.
******Transcript************
'KEY CHALLENGES TO NATIONAL GUARD DOCUMENTS ANSWERED'
Fri Sep 10 2004 19:03:11 ET
The biggest challenges to the authenticity of the documents featured in the 60 MINUTES segment on President Bush's Texas National Guard service are answered in a report to be broadcast on the CBS EVENING NEWS tonight (6:30-7:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. The report states that the type style, typewriter and the superscript function critics claim did not exist at the time the memos from President Bush's former Texas National Guard commander were typed were indeed all available. In fact, similar raised "th" superscripts have been found on other National Guard documents the White House has released from the president's file.
Furthermore, Marcel Mately, the document and handwriting expert used to authenticate the documents for CBS News and 60 MINUTES, asserts that copies of the memos critics are examining have been degraded by reproduction though photocopying, computer scanning and faxing and are not reliable representations of the memos.
A transcript is attached:
BUSH DOCUMENTS
EVENING NEWS WITH DAN RATHER
9-10-04
Rather Lead In: There were attacks today on the CBS News "60 Minutes" report this week raising new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era time in the Texas Air National Guard. The questions raised by our report include:
--Did a wealthy Texas oilman-friend of the Bush family use his influence with the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives .. to get George W. Bush a coveted slot in the National Guard .. keeping him out of the draft and any probable service IN Vietnam?
--Did Lieutenant Bush refuse a direct order from his commanding officer?
--Was Lieutenant. Bush suspended for failure to perform up to standards?
--Did Lieutenant Bush ever take a physical he was required and ordered to take? If not, why not?
--And did Lieutenant Bush, in fact, complete his commitment to the Guard?
These questions grew out of new witnesses and new evidence -- including documents written by Lieutenant Bush's squadron commander.
Today, on the internet and elsewhere, some people -- including many who are partisan political operatives -- concentrated not on the key questions the overall story raised but on the documents that were part of the support of the story.
They alleged the documents are FAKE.
Rather: MANY OF THOSE RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CBS DOCUMENTS HAVE FOCUSED ON SOMETHING CALLED SUPERSCRIPT... A KEY THAT AUTOMATICALLY TYPES A RAISED "TH". CRITICS CLAIM TYPEWRITERS DIDN'T HAVE THAT ABILITY IN THE 70S. BUT SOME MODELS DID....IN FACT, OTHER BUSH MILITARY RECORDS ALREADY OFFICIALLY RELEASED BY THE WHITE HOUSE ITSELF SHOW THE SAME SUPERSCRIPT.
HERE'S ONE..... FROM 1968.
SOME ANALYSTS OUTSIDE CBS SAY THEY BELIEVE THE TYPEFACE ON THESE MEMOS IS NEW TIMES ROMAN.... WHICH THEY CLAIM WAS NOT AVAILABLE IN THE 1970S.
BUT THE OWNER OF THE COMPANY THAT DISTRIBUTES THIS TYPING STYLE.... SAYS IT HAS BEEN AVAILABE SINCE 1931. DOCUMENT AND HANDWRITING EXAMINER MARCEL MATLEY ANALYZED THE DOCUMENTS FOR CBS NEWS.
HE SAYS HE BELIEVES THEY ARE REAL...BUT IS CONCERNED ABOUT EXACTLY WHAT IS BEING EXAMINED BY SOME OF THE PEOPLE QUESTIONING THE DOCUMENTS....BECAUSE DETIORATION OCCURS EACH TIME A DOCUMENT IS REPRODUCED.....AND THE DOCUMENTS BEING ANALYZED OUTSIDE OF CBS HAVEBEEN PHOTOCOPIED, FAXED, SCANNED AND DOWNLOADED.... AND ARE FAR REMOVED FROM THE DOCUMENTS CBS STARTED WITH WHICH WERE ALSO PHOTOCOPIES.
DOCUMENT AND HANDWRITING EXAMINER MARCEL MATLEY DID THIS INTERVIEW WITH US PRIOR TO THE 60 MINUTES BROADCAST.
HE LOOKED AT THE DOCUMENTS AND THE SIGNATURES OF COLONEL JERRY KILLIAN.... COMPARING KNOWN DOCUMENTS WITH THE COLONEL'S SIGNATURE ON THE NEWSLY DISCOVERED ONES.
Matley: "WE LOOK BASICALLY AT WHAT'S CALLED SIGNIFICANT OR INSIGNIFICANT FEATURES TO DETERMINE WHETHER IT'S THE SAME PERSON OR NOT. I HAVE NO PROBLEM IDENTIFYING THEM.
I WOULD SAY BASED ON OUR AVAILABLE HANDWRITING EVIDENCE, YES. THIS IS THE SAME PERSON."
Rather: MATLEY FINDS THE SIGNAT'URES TO BE SOME OF THE MOST COMPELLING EVIDENCE...WE TALKED TO HIM AGAIN TODAY BY SATELLITE.
Matley "SINCE IT IS REPRESENTED THAT SOME OF THEM ARE DEFINITELY HIS... THEN WE CAN CONCLUDE THEY ARE HIS SIGNATURES."
Rather: "ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT QUESTIONS COME ABOUT THESE. WE'RE NOT, BUT I WAS WONDERING IF YOU'RE SURPRISED."
Matley: "I KNEW GOING IN THAT THIS WAS DYNAMITE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER AND I KNEW THAT POTENTIALLY IT WAS FAR MORE POTENTIAL DAMAGE TO ME PROFESSIONALLY THAN BENEFIT ME. AND I KNEW THAT. BUT WE SEEK THE TRUTH. THAT'S WHAT WE DO. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PUT YOURSELF OUT. TO SEEK THE TRUTH AND TAKE WHAT COMES FROM IT."
Rather: ROBERT STRONG WAS AN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER FOR THE TEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD DURING THE VIETNAM YEARS. HE KNEW COL. JERRY KILLIAN, THE MAN CREDITED WITH WRITING THE DOCUMENTS.... AND PAPER WORK... LIKE THESE DOCUMENTS...WAS HIS SPECIALTY. HE IS STANDING BY HIS JUDGEMENT THAT THE DOCUMENTS ARE REAL.
Rather: "WHEN YOU READ THROUGH THESE DOCUMENTS, IS THERE ANY DOUBT IN YOUR MIND THAT THESE ARE GENUINE?"
Strong: "WELL,, THEY ARE COMPATIBLE WITH THE WAY BUSINESS WAS DONE AT THAT TIME. THEY ARE COMPATIBLE WITH THE MAN THAT I REMEMBER JERRY KILLIAN BEING. I DON'T SEE ANYTHING IN THE DOCUMENTS THAT'S DISCORDANT WITH WHAT WERE THE TIMES, WHAT WERE THE SITUATION OR WHAT WERE THE PEOPLE INVOLVED."
Rather: STRONG SAYS THE HIGHLY CHARGED POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE OF THE GUARD AT THE TIME... WAS PERFECTLY REPRESENTED IN THE NEW DOCUMENTS
Strong: "IT VERGED ON OUTRIGHT CORRUPTION IN TERMS OF THE FAVORS THAT WERE DONE, THE POWER THAT WAS TRADED. AND IT WAS UNCONSCIONABLE. FROM A MORAL AND ETHICAL STANDPOINT. IT WAS UNCONSCIONABLE."
Rather: IT IS THE INFORMATION IN THE NEW DOCUMENTS THAT IS MOST COMPELLING FOR PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH PRESIDENT BUSH'S RECORD IN THE NATIONAL GUARD. AUTHOR JIM MORE HAS WRITTEN TWO BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT.
Rather: "YOU'VE STUDIED PRESIDENT BUSH'S RECORDS FOR 10 YEARS.. ARE THESE DOCUMENTS CONSISTENT WITH THE RECORD AS YOU KNOW IT?"
Moore: "THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY CONSISTENT WITH THE RECORDS AS I KNOW IT."
Rather: "PUT IT IN CONTEXT AND PERSPECTIVE FOR US ... THE STORY AND WHAT WE CALL THE COUNTERATTACK ON THE STORY. WHERE ARE WE RIGHT NOW?
Moore "I THINK WHAT HAS HAPPENED IS SOME INCRIMINATING DOCUMENTS HAVE COME OUT. THE WHITE HOUSE, YOU SHOULD REMEMBER, HAS NOT DISCREDITED THE DOCUMENTS. THEY'RE RELYING ON THE BLOGOSPHERE AND OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THAT. BECAUSE THE WHITE HOUSE PROBABLY KNOWS THESE DOCUMENTS ARE IN FACT REAL."
Rather Tag: The "60 Minutes" report was based NOT solely on the recovered documents .. but on a preponderance of evidence .. including documents that were provided by un-impeachable sources .. and interviews with former officials of the Texas National Guard. If any definitive evidence to the contrary of our story is found, we will report it.
So far, there is none.
LOL! Yep, although I don't think even Rod Serling could have made up villians as evil as those who are media types and democrats!
In the army, 1970 to 74 at battalion (LTC)command level, we had manual underwoods mostly. I cut far too many stencils to ever forget.
If there was an electric someplace, it was in the S1 (personnel) shop and no one else had one. There's no way the battalion level budget would have justified spending over a few hundred bucks for an electric typewriter at battalion level in those days.
The Air Force typically was better provisioned than the Army, but not to the tune of extremely rare, rich typewriters.
JMHO
Yes. And you need a kitten. Call the kitten Couric. The kitten can do the biting commentary.
They're like Muslims. They fight each other as much as they fight everyone else.
New York was the original Mac font with serifs -- not that this really matters for anything, and I really don't want to flog a dead horse when there are more important things going on .
Anyway, if you're interested, take a look at http://www.wap.org/journal/fontsoverview/fontsquickoverview.html, for instance. Here are some excerpts:
When the Macintosh was introduced in January 1984, the first thing users noticed were the fonts. Prior to the Macintosh, computers generally displayed everything on screen in a single, monospaced font. In contrast, most of the Macintosh "city" fonts (Athens, Chicago, Geneva, London, New York, San Francisco, Venice) were proportionally spaced fonts, and only one -- Monaco -- was a monospaced font. Almost overnight, the Macintosh became a darling of amateur typographers, and hundreds of shareware fonts sprang into being.
A couple years later Apple introduced PostScript printing with the LaserWriter, and typography really took off. The LaserWriter was capable of reproducing commercial-quality printing, and the original "city" fonts were banished, replaced by Avant Garde, Bookman, Courier, Helvetica, New Century Schoolbook, Palatino, Symbol, Times, and Zapf Chancery.
Progress, however, often has casualties, as it did this time: the very simple Macintosh now seemed to be beset by all kinds of font confusion. New York looked much like Times, Palatino, Bookman and New Century Schoolbook.
. . .
Times, one of the most widely used fonts in the world, was created for the body text of The Times of London. All PostScript printers include Times as a standard font, and a variant, Times Roman, is the default font on all non-PostScript laser printers by Hewlett-Packard and Canon.
Recall that the original Mac didn't have a laser printer or any PostScript printing available. Printing was typically to an ImageWriter printer via QuickDraw, using bitmapped images.
All this is in the interest of accuracy and nostalgia, not argumentativeness :-). It's hard to believe we're looking back 20 years now.
It's an excellent list, MK. Thanks for compiling.
But shouldn't I name the kitty,"KELLY"? LOL
Dan is clearly living in a world where he runs the news and no one can question him. Technology has completely passed him by and it shows.
This is how the Viet Nam war was turned into a disaster when it could have been a success, No one could question the alphabet networks because no one had the means. They were free to frame the news anyway they wanted to. Couple the alphabet networks and the dims in congress(like Fulbright) and viola, you get Kerry the fake hero.
It's odd how history repeats, because the dims are trying the whole Viet Nam scam today with Iraq.
Poor Dan...
Two kittens. The morning show could be a cat fight. (Sorry cat-o-philes) It would be great with voice overs.
bttt
Thank you for that. I hunted for half an hour on Google, and could not find so thorough a treatment, or anything close.
"The claim I've read is that the type was available for printing machines, not for typewriters. Is Rather claiming that these documents were produced in a printer shop instead of an office typewriter?"
The distinction is between a typeWRITER and a typeSETTER, Rather almost certainly knows the difference but he will not mention it.
Thank the Freepers.
They've been nailing this right and left and pinging me everywhere. They are spot on.
I'm just typing and pasting and copying.
CBS has 48 hours to decide what to do. They've gotten an extra day because of the hurricane. Noicew that as yet, no on from CBS NEWS executive ranks,,or corporate, has spoken on the record..only Rather has addressed it.. Which means they're assessing just now bad it is..
This isn't 1968,it isn't even 1971,and in 2004,the old tricks are NOT going to work any more. :-)
100% correct about the MSM losing the Viet War along with Kommie Kerry.
I'll never forget Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings saying in a video I have that they'd not warn a US patrol walking into an ambush, since it would ruin the "story."
Harvard's "Ethics in America" Series. I used it when teaching ethics to troops from approx. 1988 to 2002. It was striking.
Cats don't usually fight each other,no matter what cat-o-phobes might think. :-)
I guess the distinction is that whomever it was that pulled the hoax used a 1972 typesetter and thought they could pull it off. Clever, but not clever enough to fool the freepers.
I wonder if Marcel did Kerry's "replacement" citations?
Yes. I don't think I ever saw Arial font on a Mac, which appears in that Font menu, until after it was common on Windows; I always assumed it was introduced for Windows compatibility.
But then that's a screenshot from a German system. I have no idea what would have been included with that.
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