Rather Forges Ahead, Leaving Career in the Dust.

RatherBiased.com ^ | September 14, 2004

[RatherBiased.com]

CBS News has gone into full "CYA" mode. After being attacked continuously for the past six days by everyone ranging from posters at FreeRepublic.com, to Web sites like RatherBiased.com, Powerline, and Instapundit.com, to large media organizations like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and its network television rivals, CBS mounted another defense of itself tonight.

Just as his Friday defense of failed to convince, Rather's Monday defense was almost completely ineffectual. Several points stand out:

1. Rather finally stated that not all of his critics are politically motivated, something he was unwilling to do last Friday.

2. Rather's report did not feature a single quotation from any of its critics, something that an objective news organization would do if it were covering the story of accusations made by political campaigns against each other. For CBS Evening News viewers who have not been following the scandal, this must have been a strange spectacle. To receive no background on the story and only one side of it.

3. Bill Glennon, the typewriter repair guy whom CBS featured tonight said that the documents "could have" been prepared on a 70s-era typewriter with "custom feature" attachments, hardly a ringing endorsement, especially since he failed to specifically name a typewriter which did have the capability. That a hypothetically very expensive typewriter using optional parts could even be found in a National Guard unit which normally operate with hand-me-down office equipment from the full-time services hardly seems likely.

4. Richard Katz, the "software designer" of unnamed employer clearly is not familiar with Microsoft Word. To disable its automatic superscripting, all one has to do is put a space after a word before typing the "th". What kind of software expert is not aware of that?

5. Referring to one of the memos which appears to use the letter "L" instead of the number one, Katz according to Rather, says that "would be difficult to reproduce on the computer today." That is complete nonsense. Is it really that hard for someone to type "L" instead of "1" within Microsoft Word?

6. Does the el versus one point made by CBS hold water? One of our readers responds:

   "As an 'old' teacher who was teaching 'typing' in the 1970's, let me submit one more item that could be added to the list of discrepancies: Even with the advent of the IBM Selectric typewriter, we continued to teach students to use the lower case of the letter L for several years because it was presented that way in the book!!

   "It took me years to personally convert to using the number 1 on the top row of the keyboard; and, I submit to you anyone who learned to type by the touch method in the 1960's and/or early 1970's continued to use the lower case of the letter L.--because it was learned intuitively."

   Peter Nelson has further thoughts on this.

7. Rather's defense failed to note any of the arguments made by Jerry Killian's family who said he never took notes, said he did not have others make them for him, and said that CBS refused to put them on the air. The anchor also failed to respond to remarks from many of CBS's sources who have either backed away from, or outright denounced the memo story as false.

8. Just days after a former CBS official denounced internet forum posters and bloggers as "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas," it appears that CBS may have used one such pajama person as a new "expert" source. According to The New York Times, Bill Glennon, typewriter repairman, is said to have "posted his thoughts on the memos on a blog."

9. CBS's original expert, Marcel Matley, who has since backed away from supporting the network's case that the documents are genuine, has a very checkered past according to New York Post. In 1995 court testimony, Matley acknowledged that he had had no formal training in a document lab, or in "machines, typewriters, photocopies." The paper also discovered that Matley has published works on "spirituality in handwriting" and "female/male traits in handwriting," with such lines in them as: "For your male client, you will be able to recognize the facade of machismo--and also recognize the hurt boy-child who uses that as a defensive hiding place."

10. Rather also failed to respond to a barrage of charges raised by Washington Post, including confirmation of a scoop first reported by RatherBiased.com that Bush's Air National Guard office did not use expensive IBM typewriters capable of printing documents in a proportional font.

11. Other Post charges: More typographical concerns raised by a genuine expert in fonts, Joseph Newcomer, incorrect addresses, improper military signature lines and abbreviations, quotes from Thomas Phinney, a font developer at Adobe (the company which oversaw the late 1980s modification of Times New Roman into its current form), and more backtracking from Matley.

12. At the end of the piece, reporters Michael Dobbs and Howard Kurtz talk to Sandy Genelius, one of our favorite spokesfriends at CBS News. She apparently didn't get the memo from Dan to defend at all cost, backpedaling tremendously from Rather's knee-jerk: "In the end, the gist is that it's inconclusive. People are coming down on both sides, which is to be expected when you're dealing with copies of documents."

13. Rather's response also failed to respond to critics who raised finer points about the font issues, including one point about kerning raised by Stephan Braddy, a software engineer who appears to have launched a new blog with a first post on Memogate stating that all available evidence suggests that "it is a mathematical certainty that the CBS Bush National Guard documents are fraudulent."

    "The fact that the CBS Bush National Guard overlay matches perfectly and shows no signs of compounding deviation makes it a mathematical certainty that the two documents were both created by Microsoft Word, and therefore not in 1973. It is nearly impossible to create two documents with two different kerning systems that can survive the overlay test, especially if those two kerning systems are separated by 30 years in technology and design."

14. It's also worth noting that the two "experts" used to support its evidence Monday night were not involved with the original authentication and had merely looked at the online copies of the documents, something which Rather on Friday said he had a problem with, given that "deterioration occurs each time a document is reproduced and the documents being analyzed outside of CBS have been photocopied, faxed, scanned and downloaded and are far removed from the documents CBS started with which were also photocopies." Strangely, Dan did not repeat this assertion Monday night.

Other instant responses from Politicalities and Ed Morrisey. Send yours to blogs@ratherbiased.com.

While you're out on the web, see this parody interview with an IBM Selectric typewriter as well as this hilarious eBay listing for a Selectric auction. We also note the creativity of the individual who came up with this image juxtaposing the CBS Eye onto the famous Tower of Sauron from the

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Also see these related Memogate cartoons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

Why all the funny links at the end? Because at this point, Dan Rather's credibility is so diminished it's quite comedic to watch him try to hold back a tsunami of evidence that he's been duped worse than the old lady who believes The Weekly World News.

If CBS is smart, and we have reason to believe that there are many people within the network who are, it will fire Rather before the bottom falls out any further. The CBS Evening News has consistently been the lowest-rated nightly news program on broadcast for nearly 15 years now. After Memogate, we have no doubt the ratings will fall even further with Rather at the helm.

Transcript here.

[MortMan]

Some thoughts on a couple of your points:

2) Are you certain that the documents were typed by Killian himself? Are you certain the documents were not typed by a Killian aide who may still be alive, and is Rather's source?

If so, where are the typist's initials? If someone else typed these, there should be a notation of the typist's initials at the bottom of the document.

4) Do you realize that it was a commonplace for typists who did not have custom features on their typewriters to manually adjust the line spacing, and sometimes the font, to insert subscripts and superscripts in mathematical and chemical texts?

Do you realize that mathematical and chemical texts of the period were typeset when in book form? If superscripting is used on a typewriter, then one-and-a-half or double line spacing is used to allow for the line violations.

5) Do you realize that variations in the heights of superscripts (and depths of subscripts) were commonly seen within single documents typed in that time period because typists had variable skill in making manual adjustments to line spacing? [emphasis added]

LTC Killian's wife and son both say he was NOT a typist.

The bottom line is this: Ra^ther submits these memos with no evidence beyond that they confirm his story while the memos themselves are crude, stupid forgeries based on the overwhelming (not just preponderance) evidence. Experts, excepting the one or two cited by C^BS, have nearly unanimously confirmed that the documents are likely inauthentic (including one who has indicated she could testify so in court).

Therefore, a question for you:

You indicated you thought your points had not been adequately addressed, yet you have obviously not been following all of the blogger and expert opinion on the matter (I have seen all of these arguments except for the line spacing one listed in posts on FreeRepublic). Why, then, should we not infer "adversarial intent" in your posing these inquiries?

[Mach9]

If CBS is smart, and we have reason to believe that there are many people within the network who are, it will fire Rather before the bottom falls out any further.

Smart isn't the issue. Their integrity's been overshadowed by their partisanship. Rather fired? No--he'll retire or move up somewhere in CBS. He was pleasing his employer as much as he was vindicating his own antiBushism.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate what you have said about the documents that were examined by the Post, but I would add to this that a personal aide (like a private secretary), who is charged with recording highly sensitive information, as indeed this was, may have had a different typewriter. It may even be that Killian recruited an outsider for such sensitive texts on a 'piece work basis'. Such people abounded in those days and were usually legal secretaries who were familiar with the requisites attendant to confidentiality. Until Rather's source is more clearly defined, I would be cautious about a 'sting'. I think this is what the White House is concerned about in its cautious response to the authenticity of the documents. In any event, I have no doubt it will be best for W to get this behind him, sooner rather than later (i.e., before the election).

[Twinkie]

Well, that cinches it then. If Baghdad Bob says it's so, then I know it's so! What is Dan's name now? Someone stick him with a good moniker rivaling Baghdad Bob's.

[syriacus]

this is what the DEMS want..a side track

Very true. I don't usually rubberneck at the scene of an accident.

I guess I'm hoping a few liberals' eyes will be opened. I'm hoping a few of them will be turned off to a Democratic party that needs to push lies to ensure its existence.

I left the Democratic party when I realized they relied on a lying media in order to remain in power.

Other liberals might be open to the truth, too.

[KC Burke]

Your focusing on the Selectric is confusing to me as I haven't followed all the fine detail of this. I thought the point about the font spacing appearing to be proportional meant that it couldn't have been typed on anything but an IBM Executive.

I used one in my dad's office in the same time period. It didn't have the ability to do superscript and couldn't underline superscript as I recall. I think he still has that old machine.

It appears to me that everything a fair person would use in evaluating the authenticity indicates it is a forgery. Font spacing, superscripts, signature, individual's usage history, individual's lack of typing skill, individual's exclusive use of handwritten memos, individual's family memory of work habits, font face availible on IBM Executive, and on and on.

If Dan had an Editor, the editor would have said, "Dan, you are being dupted like a cub; your politics is making you stretch to utilize bold face fabriction."

But Dan doesn't have an Editor...or honesty.

[Mach9]

Tend to agree, although there must be other avenues for reaching CBS & Rather. Stonewalling works: Kerry hasn't released his records, and Rather/CBS aren't going to admit their haste in bashing Bush, and the rest of the MSM aren't going to admit the Swiftees were right about . . . what? at least four Kerry lies. Even if Bush wins, the behavior of the media here is most depressing.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Thanks for your reply. Those who used IBM Selectrics in that era commonly made manual adjustments to include superscripts and subscripts in typescripts (e.g. for grant applications and in manuscripts submitted for publication). In my replies to others in this thread, I think I have covered the other issues you raised. In particular, it is by no means clear that Killian was the typist, and it would not surprise if a typist failed to initial a memo he/she had typed. You are free of course free to characterize my queries as having been ill-informed if it pleases you, but it seems a bit inconsistent to then characterize my intent as adversarial. Why not conclude I am simply ill-informed and leave it at that? I note, for the record, that you did not respond to my first query.

[Paleo Conservative]

I. M. Trenchant
3) Do you realize that IBM Selectrics, purchased on government research grants, were in widespread use in universities of that time period?

Keith in Iowa
Do you know for a fact that the TANG had them? Put up, or shut up.

A Selectric Composer is not an ordinary Selectric that would have been found in clerical offices. I have a Selectric III at the office that is still used for light duty work like filling in forms and bank deposit slips. It does not have proportional spacing, and it was built a few years after 1972.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Thanks for your reply. Those who used IBM Selectrics in that era commonly made manual adjustments to include superscripts and subscripts in typescripts (e.g. for grant applications and in manuscripts submitted for publication). In my replies to others in this thread, I think I have covered the other issues you raised. In particular, it is by no means clear that Killian was the typist, and it would not surprise if a typist failed to initial a memo he/she had typed. You are free of course free to characterize my queries as having been ill-informed if it pleases you, but it seems a bit inconsistent to then characterize my intent as adversarial. Why not conclude I am simply ill-informed and leave it at that? I note, for the record, that you did not respond to my first query.

[Mach9]

At last--something positive, active, meaningful, beneficial, purposeful . . .

[RatherBiased.com]

The documents which both the Post and we examined were written by other people in the Guard, presumably those with access to secretaries.

[hflynn]

**** this is a no brainer...DNC wants Bloggers consumed on this, so swiftvet, and Truth about KERRY DIRECTLY doesn't get presssed *****

I think your missing something. Rather continues to keep the story alive. Why? What is Rather's exit plan?

Ever so quietly talk suggesting Rather's document source is someone in the Kerry campaign is starting to surface. I think Kerry is toast anyway but if anyone is able to establish a link to the Kerry campaign staff we are looking at a Bush landslide.

IMHO Danny Boy is a Clinton sock puppet on a mission to destroy Kerry.

[N. Theknow]

I have already started calling him Richard Milhous Rather.

[syriacus]

It may even be that Killian recruited an outsider for such sensitive texts on a 'piece work basis'.

When I put this together with all the other hypotheticals and anachronisms, all I can say is:What a complicated, multiple life Killian led. The people who were closest to him, knew him the least. Memos were given the "Scientific texts" treatment.

My earlier comment that Bush's Guard Unit was a CIA outpost could be true. Maybe Bush was in Cambodia during those months missing from his Alabama records.

Even better, since we're talking about hypotheticals and anachronisms, let's just say GW Bush was really the Scarlet Pimpernel . He constructed the role of a playboy to cover his patriotic efforts.

[syriacus]

Great overview.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Thanks for your reply. Your vehemence is impressive. Has the First Lady now become the White House spokesperson? How much did Pat Nixon know of the Watergate burglary? How much did his wife know of Clinton's affair with Monica? In both cases, the answer is the same: not the truth until after their husbands told them -- belatedly. Your response about Killian's death pre-supposes that all of my other queries are frivolous and therefore, there seems no call for me to proceed further.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Thanks for your reply. As you say presumably, but not necessarily.

[DaveMSmith]

It just hit me... the senior weatherguy at KYW 3 lives 2 doors down from me. I've never met him. He's a navy pilot :-) Tom Lamaine

[RatherBiased.com]

On FNC's Fox and Friends, former CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg remarks: "I've been watching watching television news since I was five years old or thereabouts. I have never in my life seen a more one-sided piece, in the history--in the history, of television. Everybody in that story backed up, to one degree or another, CBS News's position in this. It was absolutely disgraceful."