Full text: Formal Complaint to the FCC [re: CBS]

Whereas I, the undersigned, hereby officially complain & formally request the Federal Communications Commission do henceforth initiate a thorough, prompt, urgent and complete investigation of the CBS Network, owned by Viacom, and/or its affiliates, operating under a license issued by the FCC; including but not limited to, CBS News, the 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes II and other programs and associated Producers, Anchors and other affiliated officials, associates or interests, including but not limited to Dan Rather and Mary Mapes, and/or other employees, representatives or other agents, all referred to hereinafter inclusive as “CBS”, with respect to any readily apparent forgery of documents first presented by 60 Minutes II and/or any possible attempt to mislead the American public through false and misleading claims in their 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes, 9/10/04 and 9/11/04 broadcasts of the CBS Evening News and any other broadcasts, official statements or other public representations;

Whereas terms and conditions authorized by the FCC for operating a network broadcast or television station, require said operator(s) to serve the public trust and it is now of my personal belief, based on knowledge, facts, impression, training and experience, that CBS may have knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, and/or may even so possibly continue to, violate the public trust, subject matter which is within the federal jurisdiction for investigation and enforcement by the FCC;

Whereas CBS first publicly displayed and published various (up to 4 publicly known) un-sourced and unoriginal (copied) documents in their 9/8/04 Broadcast of 60 Minutes II;, hereinafter referred to as the “purported documents”;

Whereas these documents and accompanying narrative statements appear to make possibly erroneous and/or unfounded assertions or claims about President George W. Bush's military service history, experience or records and/or other individuals, including but not limited to Mr. Jerry Killian, now deceased, hereinafter referred to as “Jerry Killian” and Walter B. “Buck” Staudt, hereinafter referred to as “Mr. Staudt”;

Whereas CBS, in a 9/10/04 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, publicly displayed, broadcast and/or published contrasting images of document text in apparent proportional font with true superscript capabilities alongside separate text which appeared to depict fixed size characters (height and width) and presented accompanying narrative statements by and including, but not limited to, Dan Rather, for the possibly purposeful or unexpected outcome of misleading the American Public and/or potentially influencing the upcoming 2004 Presidential Election, and/or possibly engaging in a conspiracy to otherwise sustain and /or defend against the numerous, effective challenges which have been publicly issued in response to the credibility & justifiability of prior actions, including but not limited to those listed herein, as may have been taken by CBS;

Whereas CBS displayed, broadcast and/or published said documents through the CBS Network and potentially influencing the upcoming 2004 Presidential Election;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts indicating the Washington Post has reported that ‘the forensic experts contacted by the Post "who said they appeared to have been generated by a word processor. An examination of the documents by The Post shows that they are formatted differently from other Texas Air National Guard documents whose authenticity is not questioned."’;

Whereas these purported documents can be easily & exactly reproduced in mirror image using commonly available Microsoft Word software, default or other installation settings and a modern laser printer using PDF format, some or all such alleged documents, as presented by CBS, readily appear to be copied, falsified and/or otherwise forgeries;

Whereas inspection of copies made publicly available by CBS reveals that there appear to be no official or distinguishing, identifiable letterheads on at least two of the purported documents;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that experienced military professionals familiar with relevant military document preparation, dating & recording standards, have challenged the legitimacy of the purported documents;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of kerning, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) may appear to exhibit evidence of text ligatures, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of text centering, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of text superscript, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that one or more purported document(s) may appear to contain curved apostrophes, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of originally being printed upon paper for which the size was not common or possibly even available to the purported author at the time the purported document(s) were allegedly created;

Whereas the specific print font(s) and exact font face(s) may not have been commonly available on typewriters that existed at the time the purported documents were allegedly created, as is readily available and reproducible today using Microsoft Word software;

Whereas there is no specific knowledge or proof yet publicly offered by CBS to identify any specific typewriter or truly compatible printing device that was or would have been in existence, available & accessible to the alleged author at the time the purported documents were originally created;

Whereas there are no other or additional purported document(s), yet publicly offered by CBS, which demonstrate equivalent or effectively similar & exact reproduction capabilities, including any/all records known to exist and/or have already been made available through public FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and other press requests;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of vertical line spacing measured at 13 points, a feature uncommon to typewriters of the day yet common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of page alignment consistent with the default settings of Microsoft Word software;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of paragraph alignment consistent with the default settings of Microsoft Word software;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of tab + spacing alignment consistent with the default settings of Microsoft Word software;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) do not appear to exhibit evidence of the characteristic impressions or depressions commonly expected would or could be visibly seen or felt arising from any alleged physical contact of any typewriter hardware with said purported document(s);

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) do not appear to exhibit evidence of the characteristic ink formations, blotting, bleeding, swelling, smearing or any of the many other readily discernable and often uniquely identifiable traits commonly arising from the use of ribbons or other sources of ink involved in the production of any purportedly typewritten document;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) may have been produced using a Laser Printer or other modern printing device;

Whereas, Hewlett Packard reports first introducing laser printers in 1980 and the first commonly available LaserJet units were not publicly available until 1984;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of proportional spacing a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas CBS has yet to publicly identify any specific or actual typewriter as that which was actually or even realistically available to and personally used by Jerry Killian as the alleged author of the purported documents;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed or alleged that the purported documents presented by CBS were prepared using some as yet unidentified IBM Selectric Composer typewriter or other unidentified variations;

Whereas it is presumed that IBM as other manufacturers, through trademarks and patents, have the ability to control & restrict the production, use or adaptation of proprietary or effectively additive technologies, including but not limited to the IBM Selectric Composer typewriter;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that the one or more IBM Selectric Composer typewriter model(s) available at the time the purported documents are alleged to have been created, reportedly sold for $3600.00 to $4400.00 or more in 1972-1973 (equivalent to $16,000 to $22,000 today);

Whereas it is reported that the IBM Selectric Composer typewriter would have required additional typewriting hardware, fonts or other modifications feasibly or actually necessary to produce any or all of the purported documents in such form as CBS has publicly presented;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Gerry Kaplan runs the web site ‘ibmcomposer.org’ which describes itself as "the only site on the Internet completely dedicated to the IBM 'Selectric' Composer line of typesetting machines" and reportedly includes information, scanned user manuals, and photographs of the working IBM Selectric Composer;

Whereas it is has been publicly reported or proved that Gerry Kaplan states, with respect to the extensive efforts required to approximate any reproduction of the purported documents using an IBM Selectric Composer, “Superscript didn’t come out so good because when you change the escapement lever (from the larger spacing to smaller spacing, and vice-versa), sometimes the ball actually slips forward by a small amount, so you can see that the superscript looks disjointed” and “To make the superscripted th, I first typed “111”, then switched the font to the 8pt font, switched the escapement lever to the smaller escapement (horizontal movement), reverse indexed the paper ½ line up, typed the “th”, indexed ½ line down, switched the escapement lever to the wider escapement, then changed the type ball back to the 11pt font.”;

Whereas, upon inspection, there is no evidence of the “disjointed” superscript to which Mr. Kaplan refers on the purported documents;

Whereas it is has been publicly reported or proved that Gerry Kaplan states, with respect to the extensive efforts, calculations and modifications required to approximate any reproduction of the purported documents using an IBM Selectric Composer, “the text is centered using proportional spaced text, which means that the typist had to carefully measure the text prior to typing to calculate its exact center point. Typing a superscript, with all its steps, is simple compared to centering text proportionally without digital electronics” and that “If you can produce centered text that matches identically to the letterhead, it is, in my opinion, a true hoax”;

Whereas modern computer graphics driver display and printing nomenclature commonly defines a “twip” as 1/20 of a point or 1/1440 of an inch;

Whereas it is has been publicly reported or proved that Gerry Kaplan suggests that there is little if any likelihood centered text can be readily or reliably & exactly duplicated repeatedly or successively and that even if the purported typist “were able to center text with a typesetting machine such as the composer, a PC (and good word processor), will center the text even more precisely, not at the "point" level, but rather on the twip level”;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, it appears at least two of the purported documents share the exact same horizontal text centering location and other properties, accuracy consistent with twip level measurement precision and other common characteristics, yet these same documents are otherwise distinct and separately distinguishable in their content and are, in fact, purportedly dated 3 months apart;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that the family members or other friends, partners, comrades, associates of Mr. Jerry Killian, the alleged author of CBS’ purported documents, including his widow and son or step-son, with respect to his limited use or familiarity with typewriters and also to the effect Jerry Killian never used or was never known to have used or possessed a proportional font typewriter and/or that these purported documents are not nor never were the personal work product of Mr. Killian, given personal or professional knowledge & experience and/or subsequent control over his personal space, legacy & possessions, and that they and/or others made CBS aware of such facts, challenges, disputes, doubts, skepticisms, and/or other relevant information or circumstances, and were not included or fully, properly or effectively represented by CBS in their public presentations, broadcasts, statements and public representations, including but not limited to the 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including ABC News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Marjorie Connell, reported widow of Jerry Killian, has publicly stated that Jerry Killian did not type and specifically that “The wording in these documents is very suspect to me" and that she "just can't believe these are his words”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including ABC News and FOX News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Gary Killian, reported step-son of Jerry Killian, has publicly stated that “it was not the nature of my father to keep private files like this, nor would it have been in his own interest to do so”, that “We don't know where the documents come from” and “they didn't come from any family member”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including the Associated Press, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Gary Killian, reported step-son of Jerry Killian, publicly stated that “I am upset because I think it is a mixture of truth and fiction here” expressing specific doubts about at least one of the purported documents, stating, “It just wouldn't happen, … The only thing that can happen when you keep secret files like that are bad things. ... No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts indicating the content of one or more of the purported documents appears to explicitly contradict previously disclosed and unchallenged official public records or military documents known to have been prepared by or on behalf of Jerry Killian;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts indicating that Guard regulations officially prohibited the maintenance of such records as are the alleged type of the purported documents;

Whereas Kelly Wright of FOX News has stated “at least three Pentagon sources believe the documents about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard are fakes”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including material published by ABC News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, states he was “misled” by CBS, that he never saw the purported documents prior to the 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, that CBS read him excerpts which they claimed were “handwritten” and Hodges believes these purported documents to be forgeries;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Rufus Martin, reportedly the personnel chief for Jerry Killian’s unit at the time, has stated, ““They looked to me like forgeries” and “I don’t think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years.”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Mr. Staudt was not in the service of the Guard at the time the purported documents may so imply that he was, having retired over a year and one half earlier, on March 1, 1972, while the relevant purported document cited by CBS was dated Aug. 18, 1973;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that at least two of the three people actually cited by CBS as corroborating witnesses or in any way vouching for any or all of their actions described above or herein, have reportedly “tempered their support for CBS” in interviews with representatives from media organizations other than CBS;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the New York Times, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Robert Strong does not believe Jerry Killian ever used or was ever known to have used a proportional font typewriter;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Associated Press, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that “Retired Col. Maurice Udell, the unit's instructor pilot who helped train Bush, said Friday he thought the documents were fake. "I completely am disgusted with this (report) I saw on '60 Minutes,'" Udell said. "That's not true. I was there. I knew Jerry Killian. I went to Vietnam with Jerry Killian in 1968";

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Los Angeles Times, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Marcel Matley, an analyst, purportedly under the prior employ or direction of CBS, is solely experienced or qualified in the analysis of handwriting and has acknowledged his limited ability to judge, evaluate, certify or authenticate only one aspect of one of the four purported documents publicly displayed and/or presented by CBS and that such evaluation was limited to any handwriting analysis involved with said (single) document, stating “he had only judged a May 4, 1972, memo — in which Killian ordered Bush to take his physical — to be authentic. He said he did not form a judgment on the three other disputed memos because they only included Killian's initials and he did not have validated samples of the officer's initials to use for comparison.";

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Marcel Matley has previously published his own professional writings including an essay written and published in September 2002 for the American Law Institute, entitled "Using and Cross-Examing Handwriting Experts", and/or a September 27, 2002 issue of "The Practical Litigator", in which Marcel Matley stated, “Do not passively accept a copy as the sole basis of a case. Every copy, intentionally or unintentionally, is in some way false to the original. In fact, modern copiers and computer printers are so good that they permit easy fabrication of quality forgerie. From a copy, the document examiner cannot authenticate the unseen original but may well be able to determine that the unseen original is false. Further, a definite finding of authenticity for a signature is not possible from a photocopy, while a definite finding of falsity is possible”;

Whereas CBS portrayed Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News 9/10/04 reportedly stating "the documents CBS started with were also photocopies" and that CBS neither did nor reportedly does now currently have the originals; Whereas the Washington Times cites “Eugene P. Hussey, a certified forensic document examiner in Washington state, studied the known signatures of Col. Killian on Air Force documents, and two signatures on documents dated 1972 and 1973 that aired on "60 Minutes" Wednesday night”, with Mr. Hussey concluding "It is my limited opinion that Killian did not sign those documents" The Times reports it “provided Mr. Hussey with copies of the CBS documents, which he dubbed Q-1-3, and records known to have been signed by Col. Killian, (K-1-3). In an official, signed letter to the Washington Times Mr. Hussey reported, "It is my opinion based on the examination of the Q-1 through Q-3 and K-1 through K-3, that Jerry B. Killian probably did not sign his name to Q-1 and his initial to Q-3," … "As to the authenticity of the CBS documents, that is Q-1 through Q-3, [they] appear to be product of a computer, rather than a typewriter."

Whereas CBS has not yet publicly identified any legitimate, recognized document typography printing forensics experts whom CBS may claim, or already have claimed, have legally testified, officially certified and/or authenticated any of the purported documents;

Whereas Howard Kurtz has reported in the Washington Post that “CBS's lead expert was Marcel Matley said last night that a "60 Minutes" executive had asked him not to give interviews”;

Whereas Howard Kurtz has reported on CNN Reliable Sources that “Although I have interviewed Rather and Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News, and I said, well, look, who are your document experts? So they finally gave me the name of a handwriting expert in San Francisco, and I called him, and he says, I am muzzled, I can't talk, CBS has asked me not to talk to the press”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Associated Press and/or MSNBC, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Sandra Ramsey Lines, reportedly a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, believes the purported documents are, indeed, forgeries and, according to the Associated Press, “Lines said that meant she could testify in court that, beyond a reasonable doubt, her opinion was that the memos were written on a computer”, thus proving the purported documents are, indeed, obvious forgeries;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Dr. Joseph M. Newcomer of Pittsburgh, PA., who received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University, spent several years on the CMU CS faculty, was a founding scientist of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at CMU and is arguably one of the pioneers of electronic typesetting, has disputed the purported documents and asks “How could anyone believe these memos are other than incompetent forgeries?”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Chicago Sun Times, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that “Philip D. Bouffard, is a nationally recognized forensic authority in typewriter and electronic typefaces, that Bouffard has the largest collection of full letter impact typewriter specimens in a private collection today. Having worked at NCR and a forensic laboratory for more than 30 years”, that Bouffard “still works with entities such as the State of Ohio on Medicare fraud cases”, reportedly states, "All the documents have been created on the same printer. And the proportional spacing and the common characteristics of numbers like 4 and 7 and letters like lower case c and upper case G are beyond the capabilities of any of the typewriter impact specimens I have in my collection. The centering of headings is also beyond the capabilities of any typewriter I know of", concluding "It is remotely possible there is some typewriter that has the capability to do all this ... but it is more likely these documents were generated in the common Times New Roman font and printed out on a computer printer that did not exist at the time they were supposedly created.";

Whereas the INDC Journal has claimed, alleged or proved that Philip D. Bouffard, in response to articles subsequently appearing in the Boston Globe, New York Times or elsewhere, Dr. Bouffard has stated “What I said to them was, I got new information about possible Selectric fonts and (Air Force) documents that indicated a Selectric machine could have been available, and I needed to do more analysis and consider it...but after looking at this more, there are still many more things that say this is bogus...there are so many things that are not right; 's crossings,' 'downstrokes' ...More things were looked into; more things about IBM options. Even if you bought special (superscripting) keys, it's not right. There are all kinds of things that say that this is not a typewrite." and that Dr. Bouffard further told INDC Journal specifically ”he wants me to correct the record. He did not change his mind, and he and his colleagues are becoming more certain that these documents are forgeries";

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Robert Cartwright, Professor of Computer Science at Rice University states “A cursory glance at the "Killian documents" shows that they are forgeries, the product of a modern word processing system”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Farrell Shriver is the owner of Shriver & Nelson, a document investigation lab in Woodstock, Georgia, is Certified by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners, is a Member and Treasurer of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, a Member of the Questioned Documents Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a Member of the Southeastern Association of Forensic Document Examiners, a Former Chief Document Examiner - U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, an Editor, Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, a Graduate of, and former chief instructor for the U.S. Army's two-year resident training program in Forensic Document Examination and Court qualified expert, including U.S. Federal District Court, the author of numerous papers and articles on the subject of Forensic Document Examination and Retired Special Agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Farrell Shriver has stated “it would be quite easy for some one using computer manipulation to take a genuine signature and manipulate it on to the document if they had those available from other records” and that “if the documents are all supposed to be from the same source, certainly if two of the documents can be shown to not be genuine, that might cast doubt on the other documents that were associated with it”;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted or not included important facts or other relevant or known information about Ben Barnes in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, including but not limited to the true extent to which he is or may be associated with the Democrat Party and/or the Kerry / Edwards campaign, any other related or sympathetic interests, nor mention any prior or conflicting statements;

Whereas there have been numerous public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Ben Barnes has raised between $100,000.00 and $500,000.00 or more for the Democrat Party, the Kerry / Edwards campaign and/or other sympathetic interests;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted or not included important facts or other relevant or known information along with other acts taken or portrayed, as described herein and elsewhere, actually revealed in their own prior reporting, possibly including but not limited to previous reports by Beth Lester reportedly stating that “As of last week, according to information received by CBS News, 20 donors have given and/or raised more than $250,000, enough to earn them the designation of Trustee. Of those, eight have actually raised more than $500K. Those half-millions include Texas lobbyist Ben Barnes”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including personal public interviews, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Amy Barnes, daughter to Ben Barnes, speaks of and attributes prior conflicting statements to Ben Barnes and disputes one or more statement(s) portrayed by CBS in their 9/08/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Ben Barnes has previously testified under oath in direct contradiction to statements later made or portrayed by CBS in their 9/08/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Ben Barnes in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, by not including reported statements by Ben Barnes to the effect he allegedly aided or assisted George W. Bush enlist in the National Guard when he “was Lt. Governor”, while, reportedly, in fact, Ben Barnes did not hold any position of Lt. Governor at the time George W. Bush enlisted;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about James Moore in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, including but not limited to the true extent to which he is or may be associated with the Democrat Party and/or the Kerry / Edwards campaign, or mention of any other prior or conflicting relationships, including past writings, such as being the author of anti-Bush books to include Bush’s Brain and Bush’s War for Reelection. Reportedly, in support or justification for CBS, Moore asserts that the lack of a White House statement discrediting the documents (yet) shows that "the White House probably knows that these documents are, in fact, real.";

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Bill Burkett in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, including but not limited to the true extent to which he is or may now previously be associated with James Moore or others sympathetic to his work, including but not limited to the DNC or the Kerry / Edwards campaign, his prior and/or conflicting statements, or his actual possible use or reliance upon as an alleged source or purported supporting witness for CBS, as suggested by Newsweek Magazine, which describes Burkett as one who is “a disgruntled former Guard officer” after having reportedly suffered two nervous breakdowns;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Murphy Archibald and/or others whom, according to an article in the New York Daily News, reportedly saw & remembered George W. Bush during his period for reporting at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, AL as CBS or other parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information, including prior reports by the Associated Press, about the numerous public statements of Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun and/or others whom reportedly saw & remembered George W. Bush during his period for reporting in Montgomery, AL as CBS or other parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about James Copeland and/or others whom, according to a 9/12/04 article in the Decatur Daily, reportedly saw George W. Bush doing his required drills at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, AL during the period CBS reporting or other parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Joe Holcombe and/or others whom reportedly state other facts pertinent to George W. Bush’s presence, experience or activities in Alabama during the period CBS or other disparaging parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including the Washington Post, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that, on one or more occasions, CBS and/or 60 Minutes have previously made and/or even apologized on-air regarding alleged misstatements of fact and/or involving fraudulent witnesses and errant or forged documents;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and television broadcasts, including ABC News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved CBS actually modified their official & succeeding public statements from:

"As is standard practice at CBS News, each of the documents broadcast on 60 MINUTES was thoroughly investigated by independent experts and we are convinced of their authenticity. In addition to analysis of the documents themselves, CBS verified the authenticity of the documents by talking to individuals who had seen the documents at the time they were written. These individuals were close associates of Colonel Jerry Killian and confirm that the documents reflect his opinions at the time the documents were written."

"As is standard practice at CBS News, the documents in the 60 MINUTES report were thoroughly examined and their authenticity vouched for by independent experts. As importantly, 60 MINUTES also interviewed close associates of Colonel Jerry Killian. They confirm that the documents reflect his opinions and actions at the time.";

Whereas there have been subsequent public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by Elliott Minor and the Associated Press, which may reference these purported documents or other related facts in dispute without any/or adequate qualification or mention of ongoing disputes or alternative considerations;

Whereas Bernard Goldberg, a potential expert witness with years of personal & professional experience working with and/or under the employ of CBS and/or other news gathering organizations, has written two published books based on such actual specific experiences including his extensive, relevant observations entitled Bias and Arrogance;

Whereas Title 18, Part I, Chapter 47, Section 1001 of the U.S. Criminal Code, provides:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully - (1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact; (2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or (3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;

Whereas federal laws or other relevant statutes or official regulations may have been violated in these regards;

Whereas the FCC has a statutory obligation to serve the public trust and to enforce the laws, terms and conditions under which the FCC legally licenses broadcast networks and television stations;

Whereas I, the undersigned, believe the foregoing to be true and correct, to the best of my knowledge, personal & professional experience, available information and belief;

I hereby execute and publish this instrument under the rights afforded to me by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the State of California.

Thank you in advance for taking all the publicly anticipated, urgent & judicious actions as appear may be necessary in these regards.

cc: The Honorable Fred Upton, Chairman of Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet via facsimile (202) 225-4986 CBS News via facsimile (212) 975-1998

thank you for posting - I hadn't yet though I had posted links in a couple places. I filed with FCC, Upton's office, my own congressman + faxed copies to CBS News and local CBS affiliate :)

what's funny is that I could add another 5 or more 'whereas ...' since I sent this off - particularly:

1) Hugh Hewitt's e-mail from an Apple software engineer who confirms that Apple did patent their font faces before licensing to Microsoft. I figured they had but didn't know for certain what they were so I simply alluded to them as being IBM and other companies.

2) Other people in Alabama have come forward.

3) New experts disputing the docs have come out.

4) Secretary now disputes writing.

5) Plus Rather came out again last night with another absurd (and probably misleading) statement about 'ones' and 'l's

"Plus Rather came out again last night with another absurd (and probably misleading) statement about 'ones' and 'l's"

Your post shows 5:01 pm CDT here; CBS evening news starts at 5:30. I'll tape it.

Printed in 11pt font (Times New Roman, just for laughs ROFLMAO) it made up 12 pages of text :)

Hugh Hewitt now giving out Congressional Switchboard number to prompt Upton for hearings.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.