Day: September 15, 2004

Is Bill Burkett the Source for the Memos?

According to the Washington Post,

Documents allegedly written by a deceased officer that raised questions about President Bush’s service with the Texas Air National Guard bore markings showing they had been faxed to CBS News from a Kinko’s copy shop in Abilene, Tex., according to another former Guard officer who was shown the records by the network.

. . .

There is only one Kinko’s in Abilene, and it is 21 miles from the Baird, Tex., home of retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the documents.

Again, if Bill Burkett turns out to have been the source, then CBS’ reputation is further trashed. Remember, they claimed that their source for the documents was an “unimpeachable” individual. Nobody in their right mind would describe Burkett that way (regardless of whether you find Burkett believable or not, he’s a partisan with an axe to grind.)

Source:

CBS Guard Documents Traced to Tex. Kinko’s. Michael Dobbs, Washington post, September 16, 2004.

Did Fox Run the Faked Kerry/Fonda Photo As Real?

The New Republic has an article about the Dan Rather dustup in which Telis Demos claims the following,

If this last offense sounds familiar, it’s because the right-wing media does it all the time. In February 2004, for instance, Fox News broadcasters Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, and John Gibson all showed a photo of John Kerry standing next to Jane Fonda on a podium at an anti-Vietnam War rally in the 1970s. It turns out the photo was fake. Did hordes of media critics demand retractions from Hume, Hannity, and Gibson? Of course not. As a result, it seems likely that plenty of voters continue to believe the picture was real.

Did this really happen, though? I searched through all of the transcripts of Fox News programs on Lexis and I couldn’t find any time when this faked picture was shown as if it were real. The photo was definitely shown on Fox News by Brit Hume, but not in the context that Demos claims. On February 15, 2004, Chris Wallace discussed the photo on Fox News Sunday,

WALLACE: Juan mentions that there was dirt being loaded on John Kerry. It was also being loaded on him about his opposition to the war in Vietnam after he came back as a war hero.

And I want to show you some fascinating pictures. Let’s put up the first one, if we can. There is a picture of Jane Fonda, a famous anti-war activist, in the foreground. And way back in the back, fuzzy, no sign that they were anywhere close together — and I must say, two years before Jane Fonda actually went to Hanoi and became Hanoi Jane — at a rally.

WALLACE: And this was put out as some indication that they were in lock step.

And then, when that sort of fell flat, another picture was seen on the Internet showing, well, they’re not now far apart, they’re actually right together on the podium, John Kerry and Jane Fonda. There is only one problem with that picture, it was a fake. Jane Fonda was digitally added. The photo agency that owns the picture says this is the original, John Kerry by himself.

Ceci, I guess the question is, with the length of this campaign — it looks now we could be talking about eight months between Kerry and George W. Bush — and all the things, either rumors or bogus pictures that could be circulated on the Internet, are we headed for something we’ve never seen before?

I found one example where Hannity mentioned a photo on his show (not with Brit Hume, though) where it was unclear which photo Hannity was referring too, though I suspect it was the photo of Kerry sitting several rows back at an event where Fonda spoke. But the only time the fake photo is mentioned on Brit Hume’s show that I could find is to dismiss it as a fake.

Demos isn’t very helpful since he just says “February 2004.” Does anyone else know if Fox ran the photo as real (if they did, it would be interesting to track how long it took them to acknowledge the fact that it was fake).

Source:

Forge Ahead. Telis Demos, New Republic, September 15, 2004.

Dan Rather Is a Moron

I can’t believe that Dan Rather had the gall to tell the New York Observer this,

It’s never been fully, completely denied by the Bush-Cheney campaign or even the White House that he was suspended for meeting the standards of the Air Force or that he didn’t show up for a physical. The longer we go without a denial of such things—this story is true.

. . .

I think the public, even decent people who may be well-disposed toward President Bush, understand that powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about the documents because they canÂ’t deny the fundamental truth of the story. If you canÂ’t deny the information, then attack and seek to destroy the credibility of the messenger, the bearer of the information. And in this case, itÂ’s change the subject from the truth of the information to the truth of the documents.

Rather is completely intellectually bankrupt at this point. Why is such a loser the anchor on one of the big three network news broadcasts?

Source:

Dan Rather To Bush: ‘Answer The Questions’. Joe Hagan, New York Observer, September 15, 2004.

Rep. Cox Calls for Congressional Investigation of CBS Documents

U.S. Representative Christopher Cox is calling for a Congressional investigation of the apparently faked CBS documents,

This is a request that you commence a Subcommittee investigation into the continued use by CBS News of apparently forged documents concerning the service record of President George W. Bush intended to unfairly damage his reputation and influence the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.

In February 2001, the Energy & Commerce Committee held hearings calling the television networks to account for irresponsibly (and inaccurately) calling the outcome of the presidential election in Florida before the polls had closed. At those hearings, CBS News vowed that the competitive drive to get the story first would be subordinated to ‘making sure we are correct,’ given that the stakes –the outcome of the presidential election– were so high….

Despite the growing abundance of the evidence that CBS News has aided and abetted fraud, the network has declined to reveal the source of the disputed documents. USA Today possesses the same documents, obtained independently from a person representing them to be authentic, and likewise is refusing to disclose his identity.

Given the shortness of time between now and the election which the apparent fraud is meant to influence, and the even shorter time before Congress is scheduled to adjourn, I strongly urge that the Subcommittee move with all deliberate speed to uncover the facts.

CBS’ Other Document Experts Say They Warned About Problem

The other experts CBS said authenticated the Killian documents are starting to surface, but they’re saying things that CBS probably doesn’t want to hear. According to ABC News, two of the experts warned CBS that there were problems with the documents,

Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina, told ABC News she saw problems right away with the one document CBS hired her to check the weekend before the broadcast.

“I found five significant differences in the questioned handwriting, and I found problems with the printing itself as to whether it could have been produced by a typewriter,” she said.

Will says she sent the CBS producer an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.

“I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story,” Will said.

But the documents became a key part of the 60 Minutes II broadcast questioning President Bush’s National Guard service in 1972. CBS made no mention that any expert disputed the authenticity.

“I did not feel that they wanted to investigate it very deeply,” Will told ABC News.

A second document examiner hired by CBS News, Linda James of Plano, Texas, also told ABC News she had concerns about the documents and could not authenticate them. She said she expressed her concerns to CBS before the 60 Minutes II broadcast.

“I did not authenticate anything and I don’t want it to be misunderstood that I did,” James said. “And that’s why I have come forth to talk about it because I don’t want anybody to think I did authenticate these documents.”

CBS’ response? They claim they have two other document experts who authenticated the documents as well, but they won’t name them (surprise).

The documents are fake. Dan Rather and others involved have permanently damaged their credibility and will have to be suspended or fired for CBS News to retain any credibility. Finally, CBS must reveal the source who scammed it and tried to use forgeries to influence a presidentical election.

Source:

Casting Further Doubt. ABC News, September 14, 2004.