Posted on 09/15/2004 4:37:57 AM PDT by tsmith130
Kelley Wright just reported that CBS is expected to make a statement this morning regarding the documents!
CBS will stonewall this until the year 2032, at which time 100-year-old Dan Rather will finally retire and reminisce about that "funny incident from 2004" when his staff mixed up the documents and he passed off a forgery as a real document, but managed to pull it off until the heat died down.
Based on stories that CBS reporters want them to push this thing more aggressively, and that in their minds a FreeRepublic blogger is a "partisan" whereas the Kerry campaign is not.
I agree, they still forged official US documents.
Rather couldn't do that even with Viagra!
The old bag is incoherent.
This is from the national review
http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerryspot.asp
UH, SOMETHING'S FUNNY ABOUT THIS 'SWEET OLD LADY' [09/15 08:50 AM]
The Kerry Spot, as a rule, doesn't like criticizing 86-year-old former Air National Guard secretaries. But there is something very odd about the current statements of Marian Carr Knox, former secretary to Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.
As the Houston Chronicle noted:
Knox said she decided to report her recollection of the time period to the media after hearing White House press officials say the information in the memos was false.
Did anyone in the White House say this? I thought they were standing with their rote response, "The President was honorably discharged... The President was honorably discharged..."
Further down, we read:
Last week, Knox said she had no firsthand knowledge of Bush's time with the Texas Air National Guard, although she did recall a culture of special treatment for the sons of prominent people, such as Bush and others.
But she told The New York Times: "We did discuss Bush's conduct and it was a problem Killian was concerned about," Mrs. Knox said. "I think he was writing the memos so there would be some record that he was aware of what was going on and what he had done."
One week she's saying she had no firsthand knowledge of Bush's service, the next she's saying she discussed it with Killian.
Knox also claims in the Houston Chronicle Killian "kept copies to protect himself," contradicting the widow and the son. She says Killian didn't type, that she typed for him - but says she never typed a memo like this. So how did a memo "like this, in this vein, reflecting these opinions," etc. get created? Her contention that the memos reflected Killian's opinion seems more like an assertion or wishful thinking than anything supported by the rest of the facts. Remember, in the verified documents, Killian says nice things about Bush.
I am sure Knox is a very nice 86-year-old woman. But her story seems, at this point, to be unreliable.
I bet I'm not far off on that one, her sudden anti-Bush story will figure prominently in this statement. Translation: There were some random anti-Bush kooks milling around who say this stuff is true, so what's the big deal if THESE docs happen to be forgeries? Our partisan kooks can beat up your partisan kooks.
Something's amiss for CBS to release this statement via email. This allows CBS to avoid questioning by the media.
Yes, the USA Today site shows the exact same 4 documents CBS showed, plus 2 more."
I believe you've stated it exactly right. The question is...did CBS know USATODAY and other media outlet(s) also received documents from the same source and chose not to go with them because they looked phoney.
CBS has been pursuing this story hard, since way back last year, in Texas actively seeking sources. I think Burkette is their main source, I think he's the one who gave them the documents, maybe by way of Barnes, but I bet Burkette is the one who created them, or hired it done.
I think CBS's reluntance to protect their source s identity, has more to do with with saving face than it does the lofty journalistic tradition of protecting sources. Burkette is a known obsessive, maybe unhinged, Bush basher and for CBS to admit he's their source and CBS didn't disclose his bias, is to admit to shoddy, negligent journalistic standards for the purpose of impacting the presidential election.
(Someone way smarter than me thinks the identity of the person who gave CBS the documents is an open secret among the media, that the White House knows who it is too.)
No, 'twas only a guess. I refer to it as the, "last ditch, grasping at the last straw" defence.
She's obviously not getting very good legal advice.
Thanks for the heads up. I believe that it will be an email See BS will
send out and at NOON today. I assume that's noon EASTERN time.
well it was really well written. ;-p they could probably use u at CBS ;op
I think you are giving CBS too much credit. They don't have the patience or the cajones to pull the kind of trick you suggest. If they had the originals they would have pulled them out long before the MSM and, especially, the WP started getting hot on the trail. IF this were a rope-a-dope, it would have been over long ago.
I'll bet that's right, and for several reasons Burkett is looking like the likely source, indeed.
YaYa, I am firmly in support of the Congressional Hearing idea that Hugh Hewitt is pushing and that Chris Cox is supporting and formally requesting.
"What heat? Kerry hasn't gotten ANY heat for not signing the form to release his records. It's only us little people who have clamored that he do so, not any media source."
Ah, but those Swift ads, had that push and it is the little people who vote, remember they are supposedly going after a very small number of supposedly "independent" voters.
They did not want the "fire" to create the HEAT.
Okay, if they are NOT going to do anything about this forged doc and let it sit in the public forum, and manage to get away with it, then I suppose they'll move forward the rest of the forged doc dump. They'll NOT have to say anything about them being fraudulent, only that while questionable, it bears investigation and the Bush people should respond.
You know, We have got to get back to the issues in this campaign as well.. this is a diversionary tactic to keep us away from the real issues, and to neutralize the flack over the Kerry docs.
This emailed CBS statement is the easy way out for them...avoids having to take questions.
Of interest: Walter Cronkite hasnt' spoken up. (I bet he has in private, to the CBS suits)
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