RealClearPolitics.Com notes that Dan Rather seems to want to shift the burden of proof on authenticating the apparently fake Texas Air National Guard documents,
“Document analysis isnÂ’t a pure science. ItÂ’s not fingerprints or DNA. ItÂ’s a very crude art. You have one expert testifying one thing and one another… Unless someone shows us definitive proof that the documents are not authentic, then we donÂ’t see any reason to carry on a conversation with the professional rumor mill.” - Dan Rather, quoted by Broadcasting & Cable (9/12/04)
Sorry, Dan. The burden of proof is on CBS to demonstrate that the documents are authentic, not on critics to prove that they aren’t authentic.
This is especially so since there is absolutely no traceable provenance to the documents that CBS has been willing to reveal. Don’t air photocopied documents that look suspicously like they were created on modern computers and whom came from an anonymous source and then complain that it’s up to other people to prove that they’re not authentic.
But it certainly does give a lot of insight into how mainstream media view their obligations to truth and accuracy.
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