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.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Again, thanks for your reply. I'll leave you to pursue your speculations about Bush in Cambodia etc., and leave it to time to tell us if your broadsides about hypotheticals and anachronisms were valid.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Excellent question. Why is Rather stonewalling? Who is he protecting? The answer is the person he recieved these obvious forgeries from.

What if the forgeries were recieved from someone involved in the Kerry campaign who also is very close to Rather? Perhaps his daughter?

[from occupied ga]

Dan Rather's credibility is so diminished it's quite comedic to watch him try to hold back a tsunami of evidence ...

Remember he's not speaking to an objective audience. The Democratic faithful want to believe. If CBS is smart, and we have reason to believe that there are many people within the network who are,

Sorry the objective evidence is that CBS is not smart, just fiercely partisan to the left

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

None of this matters. CBS "news" is not about news it is about presenting statist propaganda. As long as they don't actually go bankrupt they will continue to present their warped viewpoint of everything American. Blather and CBS news are everything that Joeseph Goebbels wanted to be.

[John Valentine]

I'm sorry for the rant. I am a bit out of patience with this story. All these points have been made redundantly and ad nauseum.

I am afraid that I don't get your dismissal of Laura Bush. She does live in the White House, is close to the President, and I suspect that her public utterances are cleared ahead of time.

And Laura Bush doesn't need her Hubby to tell her that these documents are frauds.

In the words of Joseph Newcomer:

"It does not take a sophisticated expert in forensics or document authentication to spot these obvious forgeries. The forgery is obvious to anyone who knows the history and technology of digital typesetting, not to mention to any intelligent 12-year-old who has access to Microsoft Word."

As for your final comment, I wouldn't say that my response pre-supposes anything other than the fact that you are abysmally under-informed on every aspect of this story.

You really need to educate yourself on these issues, and I suggest starting here:

http://www.flounder.com/bush2.htm

[I. M. Trenchant]

Thanks for your reply. I'm no admirer of Dan Rather. I still wrankle over Cronkite's and his treatment of Nixon. My caution is not to underestimate the damage he can do. As almost all in this forum seem to agree, the damage will be to himself, but I have too much regard for the sinister skills of the Democrats to dismiss the memos out-of-hand until a fuller accounting comes from Rather and the White House spokesmen, among whom I would not yet be prepared to include Laura.

[Let's Roll]

"...for a guy who shirks his own job, Kerry sure is eager to tell others what they should do and what they've done wrong."

Thanks for the new tagline.

[bvw]

Today, the editors are polital comissars of PC-hood -- communisim and secularism.

[TruthWillWin]

LOL

Funny but very true. (picture of Bagdad Bob) They both have zero credibility.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Again, thanks for your vehemence. I think the White House would be the first to say that Laura is not a spokesperson for the White House, and possibly it will issue a clarification about this in the not-too-distant future. Time will tell who was abysmally this-or-that. Cheers.

[John Valentine]

By the bye, I noticed that you didn't even take a crack at my final query to you, and this by the way is the nail in the coffin question because it remains a valid question even if all your bogus assumptions were true:

"How would Killian or anyone else know in 1972 exactly how to tweak an IBM Slelctric to mimic a document produced on a computer in Microsoft Word using Apple licensed TrueType technology 15 years before they existed? Was he the clairvoyant of the Age, or a time traveler? It has to be one or the other.

What's your theory?"

Well, what IS your theory? Time traveler or psychic?

[Uncle Vlad]

Reminds me of that line from "Absence of Malice," where Wilfred Brimley turns to his assistant and says, "Elliott, what do you suppose you were gonna do after government service?"

[MortMan]

To answer your first query - this strategy is in keeping with the general tone maintained by the Bush White House. I have not yet seen a full recounting of the First Lady's comments, but I would imagine that she was asked a direct question regarding the memos, and she gave a direct answer. The White House is not required to prove nor disprove the authenticity of the memos. The President would have no special knowledge of private files of LTC Killian, and therefore is not in a position to positively vouch for or against the authenticity of the memos - although they can (and have) disputed the memos' contents.

The bottom line is this: One must believe that a large number of circumstances came into a single particular orbit in order for LTC Killian to have authored the documents. The vast preponderence of the evidence suggests these memos were produced using Microsoft Word, and that conclusion only requires belief that someone would have concocted them for political gain.

If Rather has a source that can debunk the forgery assertions, it is encumbent on him and CBS to bring the person forward. Even if it is technically possible for the memos to have been produced in the early 1970s, Rather and company need to show that it is PROBABLE in light of the inconsistencies already identified (and validated) with them.

In terms of the "adversarial" issue: I was simply responding to your assertion that the intent was not adversarial. It struck me as "protesting too much", and I thought it warranted a comment.

I don't know if you are ill informed, playing devil's advocate, or trying to pick a fight. I chose to respond to some of your points, others having been adequately addressed IMO by other posters, and then to obliquely inquire why you thought we shouldn't conclude hostile intent.

[bvw]

He's a hopeless cause, I'd say.

[bvw]

Lukewarmity to you, sir!

[KC Burke]

I wouldn't expect the "White House" to comment on such a campaign charge. It has no bearing on the operation of the executive branch of government.

If this issue of Bush's Air Guard service of thirty years ago begins to appear to have some truth to it, a position that hasn't arisen yet amongst Dan's collegues, then the campaign staff might alude to it in a news conference. It certainly isn't an overall Republican Party issue until after the campaign staff makes a comment on it.

However, right now it has the veracity of the Aussie paper story that posits Bush as Gay, so why should his campaign staff or re-election committee even bend down to brush it aside? The burden of proof, which used to be informally recognized in substative journalism, rests entirely on Rather. By touching the "tar-baby" the campaign staff merely rises to the bait.

Bush should let politicized journalism be recognized and policed by the journalistic peers to the propaganidist in question, Rather.

[usslsm51]

With 30 years experience in Administration with the ARNG from the unit level to NGB level, no way would any one go to the trouble of subscripting a memo. In fact memo's were basically used as information papers rather than orders. If we didn't cut an order to take a physical, we would have written a personal letter when ordering an individual to take a physical exam. If a memo were used it would have been as a reminder that a physical was upcoming. These documents just don't measure up in my opinion to the methods that were generally used in the military.

[cyncooper]

Why has the White House not challenged either the authenticity of the documents, or the truth of the events described therein?

Actually, they have said they don't know if they are authentic or forgeries and have noted they are concerned if the latter.

Further, they accurately stated that even the content of the forged documents does not change the record that GWB served and was discharged honorably, something many of us noted upon the publication of these things.

The rest of your points have been more than adequately addressed on this board for days.

[KC Burke]

I think that someone should research McCain-Feingold and decide if the entire CBS News budget should be counted as a Democrat campaign contribution and if they should therefore go off the air for the 60 days prior to the election.

Surely there is little difference between their promotion, actions and content and Moveon.org.

I think that such a question should be posed on CSPAN as it would be amusing to see a media guest try to answer it. CBS has become so transparent in its propagandizing that such hubris must be met in kind.

[cyncooper]

WE are playing into their hands:::::

we need to get past this ....

Forget it. We'll get past it when consequences are meted out to the perps.

[cyncooper]

1. The White House HAS challenged the authenticity of the documents. The First Lady did so today, and stated forthrightly that she believed them to be outright forgeries.

Scott McClellan told the press last Friday they were concerned if the papers were forgeries.