Tag: CBS

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.

More Indications that Memo are Fake; CBS Digs In Deeper

Today the Dallas Morning News reported that Jerry Killian’s former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, says the CBS memos supposedly writtne by Killian are not authentic. According to the Dallas Morning New,

“These are not real,” she told The Dallas Morning News after examining copies of the disputed memos for the first time. “They’re not what I typed, and I would have typed them for him.”

Mrs. Knox, 86, who spoke with precise recollection about dates, people and events, said she is not a supporter of Mr. Bush, who she deemed “unfit for office” and “selected, not elected.”

“I remember very vividly when Bush was there and all the yak-yak that was going on about it,” she said.

But, she said, telltale signs of forgery abounded in the four memos, which contained the supposed writings of her ex-boss, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.

She said the typeface on the documents did not match either of the two typewriters that she used during her time at the Guard. She identified those machines as a mechanical Olympia, which was replaced by an IBM Selectric in the early 1970s.

She spoke fondly of the Olympia machine, which she said had a key with the “th” superscript character that was the focus of much debate in the CBS memos. Experts have said that the Selectric, and mechanical typewriters such as the Olympia, could not produce proportional spacing, found in the disputed documents.

. . .

She also said the memos may have been constructed from memory by someone who had seen Lt. Col. KillianÂ’s private file but were not transcriptions because the language and terminology did not match what he would have used.

For instance, she said, the use of the words “billets” and a reference to the “administrative officer” of Mr. Bush’s squadron reflect Army terminology rather than the Air National Guard. Some news reports attribute the CBS reports to a former Army National Guard officer who has a longstanding dispute with the Guard and has previously maintained that the president’s record was sanitized.

That person, of course is Bill Burkett. If Burkett is indeed the source, then CBS is sitting on a disaster-in-waiting which might explain why they’re being so obtuse about acknowledging the problems with the documents.

Today, CBS had the gall to say this on its broadcast tonight,

“Laura Bush became the first White House insider to doubt the authenticity of the documents. But she offered no evidence to back up her claim.

Presumably she should have turned to a graphologist.

Source:

Former secretary says she didn’t type memos. Pete Slover, Dallas Morning News, September 14, 2004.

More on CBS’ Handwriting Expert

Now the New York Post suggests that CBS’ handwriting expert, Marcel Matley, might not even have any professional training in document authentication or handwriting analysis.

According to the Post, Matley got his start in the pseudo-science of graphology (the claim that you can tell much about an individual’s personality/character by their handwriting),

The expert chosen by CBS to check Dan Rather’s disputed National Guard documents got his start as a graphologist analyzing “Spirituality in Handwriting” and lacks recognized document training, The Post has learned.

Analyst Marcel Matley lists “Spirituality in Handwriting” and “Female/Male Traits in Handwriting” on the Web site for a foundation he serves as librarian. They were privately printed, but another analyst provided portions to The Post.

In “Spirituality in Handwriting,” Matley assesses a woman’s “libidinal energy” based on her handwriting.

“She has an excellent and rich animate nature with a healthy, instinctual libidinal energy which, when integrated, will propel her into dynamic and fruitful activity and self-fulfillment,” Matley wrote in 1989.

In “Female/Male Trait in Handwriting,” the San Francisco-based Matley said he could analyze a woman’s handwriting “to show her how she can have her womanly qualities fully realized.”

The article continued: “For your male client, you will be able to recognize the facade of machismo — and also recognize the hurt boy- child who uses that as a defensive hiding place.”

Moreover, in the past Matley has had to admit that he apparently has no formal training in document authentication,

In addition, in a 1995 California court deposition obtained by The Post, Matley acknowledged that he had no formal training in a document lab, in identification of papers, inks or “machines, typewriters, photocopies.” He also acknowledged he’d had no training from the U.S. Secret Service, FBI, U.S. Army, California Department of Justice or any other law-enforcement body.

Maybe he thought the Killian memos looked masculine and that was enough!

Source:

CBS Writing Ace Has Rather Wacky Background. Deborah rn, New York Post, September 14, 2004.

CBS’ Handwriting Expert Says He Did Not Authenticate Documents

According to the Washington Post, the handwriting expert Dan Rather claimed had analyzed the documents and “says he believes they are real” now claims that he never authenticated any of the documents for 60 Minutes II. According to the Post,

The lead expert retained by CBS News to examine disputed memos from President Bush’s former squadron commander in the National Guard said yesterday that he examined only the late officer’s signature and made no attempt to authenticate the documents themselves.

“There’s no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them,” Marcel Matley said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. The main reason, he said, is that they are “copies” that are “far removed” from the originals.

The Washington Post also points out a number of stylistic problems with the memos, including several raised by retired Col. Bobby Hodges whom CBS originally said had also authenticated the documents. According to The Post,

Stylistic differences. To outsiders, how an officer wrote his name and rank or referred to his military unit may seem arcane and unimportant. Within the military, however, such details are regulated by rules and tradition, and can be of great significance. The CBS memos contain several stylistic examples at odds with standard Guard procedures, as reflected in authenticated documents.

In memos previously released by the Pentagon or the White House, Killian signed his rank “Lt Col” or “Lt Colonel, TexANG,” in a single line after his name without periods. In the CBS memos, the “Lt Colonel” is on the next line, sometimes with a period but without the customary reference to TexANG, for Texas Air National Guard.

An ex-Guard commander, retired Col. Bobby W. Hodges, whom CBS originally cited as a key source in authenticating its documents, pointed to discrepancies in military abbreviations as evidence that the CBS memos are forgeries. The Guard, he said, never used the abbreviation “grp” for “group” or “OETR” for an officer evaluation review, as in the CBS documents. The correct terminology, he said, is “gp” and “OER.”

The case for CBS gets worse and worse. The longer CBS waits before starting an internal investigation parallel with an external independent look at the documents the more its credibility is going to be harmed if the documents ultimately prove to be fakes.

Source:

Expert Cited by CBS Says He Didn’t Authenticate Papers. Michael Dobbs and Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, September 14, 2004.