Day: September 11, 2004

Apparently, Dan Rather told an outright lie last night during his defense of the Killian documents. Rather said (emphasis added),

Document and handwriting examiner Marcel Matley analyzed the documents for CBS News. He says he believes they are real, but he is concerned about exactly what is being examined by some of the people now questioning the documents.

But the Los Angeles Times is reporting today that,

But in an interview with The Times, the analyst [Matley] said 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.

So Rather just went on TV last night and lied his ass off.

The Times goes on to note that CBS apparently has two other document examiners at an undisclosed location who verified the documents,

A CBS official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the network had two other document experts, who CBS did not identify, examine the documents, which were copies of the originals.

So why did Rather lie about it last night and tell us Matley analyzed all the documents and said he believes all of them are real? Does CBS condone its anchors lying to their audience?

As Glenn Reynolds might put it, I think they’ve been making that clear for years. . . .

Source:

Amid Skepticism, CBS Sticks to Bush Guard Story. James Rainey and Elizabeth Jensen, Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2004.

Michelle Malkin is absolutely right — it’s time for CBS to put up or shut up about the documents,

Instead, I suggest asking CBS to immediately assemble an independent commission comprised of forgery experts. The commission should be given one week to determine whether it is more likely than not that the documents in question were forged. If CBS does not cooperate, a boycott against both CBS and its major advertisers should be organized.

This is absolutely what CBS needs to do or as far as I’m concerned there’s no reason to think the documents have any sort of authenticity.

(I’d join a CBS boycott, but the only time I’ve watched the network in the last year was to watch Rather’s defense of the story).

The Washington Post reports that CBS has asked its document expert Marcel Matley not to give interviews,

Rather said that CBS’s lead expert was Marcel Matley of San Francisco, a member of the National Association of Document Examiners who has taught, lectured and written about his field, testified in numerous trials, and consulted for government agencies. Matley said last night that a “60 Minutes” executive had asked him not to give interviews.

Perhaps CBS is worried that reporters will ask Matley questions about Matley’s previous statements about authenticating documents, such as this,

In fact, modern copiers and computer printers
are so good that they permit easy fabrication of
quality forgeries. 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.

And yet, CBS considers Matley’s analysis of a photocopied and heavily deteriorated signature to be “compelling evidence” that the documents are authentic.

Source:

Using and Cross-Examining Handwriting Experts (PDF). Marcel Matley, Undated.

From Dan Rather’s defense of the Killian documents last night,

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 have

Been photocopied, faxed, scanned and downloaded…. And are far removed from the documents cbs started with.

But then the New York Times reports,

Mr. Matley said the documents the network sent him were so deteriorated from copying that it was impossible to identify the typeface.

So apparently CBS is concerned about people trying to authenticate poorly copied and deteriorated documents only when it’s someone other than their expert.

And an odd puzzle remains. If this document came from Killian’s personal file, as CBS claims, how did it end up being copied repeatedly to get into such an advanced stage of deterioriation?

Last night the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes debated former CBS producer Jonathan Klein about whether or not the CBS documents are fake. Here’s a partial transcript,

KLEIN: Yes, I mean, I have a lot of faith in the producer of this segment only because I worked with her for a long time. And she is absolutely peerless, I’d say, in the profession. She is a crack journalist. And in this case, she’s the same producer who broke the Abu Ghraib story.

And at the time, there was a big flurry of, you know, a lot of attempts to discredit that story. And it turned out to be even bigger than the story they originally broke.

But in this case, she’s worked on this story for four years. I mean, this is a multiple Emmy winning producer…

SNOW: But if you’ve worked on this for four years, you’re thinking, you know, I’ve got something here. And if you worked for four years, you’re going to want to make it work. Again, in talking to Gary Killian — one of the things he said in this conversation with her is I’ve got the names of some people who can directly contradict this, who have worked with my father. They were his superiors. They knew the president. And she said I don’t know, you know, I’ve got to find out if they’re Bush supporters. Again, is that the kind of question you’d really ask when you’re doing something like this?

KLEIN: Oh, it speaks to the care that they take to validate sources of all kinds. They’re not going to just throw somebody on the air just because they say something. It’s a real integral part of the “60 Minutes” process. They are probably the most careful news organization, certainly on television.

SNOW: No…

KLEIN: When it comes to the vetting sources.

SNOW: …but they put Ben Barnes on the air. And he’s working for John Kerry.

KLEIN: But they disclose things. You know, they disclose stuff like that. And they vet people’s veracity. And they have multiple checks and balances in the process to make sure that not too much slips by.

Now they’re human. They could make mistakes, but it’s not going to be by forgetting to call the sources that the…

SNOW: Because the point on CBS — “60 Minutes” got burned by a forged document case in the late 1990’s and ended up having to pay some money for it. It was the border patrol.

KLEIN: Well, their track record over 35 years is just about pristine. They have the best record of just about anybody.

Of course, this morning one of the sources cited by CBS — Retired Maj. General Hodges — is claiming that CBS misled him about the new documents and adds that he thinks they are fakes,

Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian’s supervisor at the Grd, tells ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were “handwritten” and after CBS read him excerpts he said, “well if he wrote them that’s what he felt.”

Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70’s and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been “computer generated” and are a “fraud”.

Not surprisingly, the only thing Klein offered were ad hominems like this,

KLEIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and these loggers have no checks and balances and couldn’t — I agree. It’s an important moment because you couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing…

I’ll take someone sitting in his living room just writing over producers who deceive the people they’re turning to for verification anyday.

It’s also interesting that according to Killian’s son, CBS interviewed both him and his mother prior on Friday, but of course chose not to include any portion of that interview in their coverage of the controversy over the documents.