Dan Rather, Patsy or Conspirator?
On September 8, 2004, CBS news anchor Dan Rather headed a report aired on 60 Minutes II in which he raised questions about the Air National Guard record of President George W. Bush that have been asked repeatedly throughout President Bush�s political career. Though offering nothing new to those questions, Dan Rather gave an interview to long-time Texas politician and recognized top Kerry supporter and fund raiser, Ben Barnes, who recanted his sworn testimony that he had not provided George W. Bush preferential treatment in being accepted into the guard. Rather also reported CBS had been given confidential memos written by President Bush�s superior officer in the guard, Jerry Killian, in which he ordered Bush to take a physical exam and reprimanded him for not doing so. Jerry Killian passed away in 1984.
Since the airing of the 60 Minutes II story, many questions about the validity of the memos and other documents received by CBS have been raised. ABC reported, ��These documents do not appear to have been the result of technology that was available in 1972 and 1973,� said Bill Flynn, one of country's top authorities on document authentication. �The cumulative evidence that's available � indicates that these documents were produced on a computer, not a typewriter.�� In that same ABC report, among the evidence Bill Flynn sighted were:
�The memos were written using a proportional typeface, where letters take up variable space according to their size, rather than fixed-pitch typeface used on typewriters, where each letter is allotted the same space. Proportional typefaces are available only on computers or on very high-end typewriters that were unlikely to be used by the National Guard.�
�The memos include superscript, i.e., the "th" in "187th" appears above the line in a smaller font. Superscript was not available on typewriters. The memos included "curly" apostrophes rather than straight apostrophes found on typewriters.�
�The font used in the memos is Times Roman, which was in use for printing but not in typewriters. The Haas Atlas � the bible of fonts � does not list Times Roman as an available font for typewriters.�
�The vertical spacing used in the memos, measured at 13 points, was not available in typewriters, and only became possible with the advent of computers.�
As more and more experts examined the documents the accusations against their authenticity began to grow. The family of Jerry Killian came forward claiming not only did he not type, but he was a supporter of George W. Bush and the statements made did not sound like something he would say. The Dallas Morning news reported that Major General Hodges, mentioned as putting pressure to �sugar coat� George W. Bush�s record in one of allegedly forged memos, had in fact retired from the guard nearly a year and a half before.
CBS responded to the allegations by insisting their expert had authenticated the memo, later the Washington Post reported the CBS expert had only authenticated the signature and "made no attempt to authenticate the documents." CBS also reported a fellow guardsman serving with Killian said the memos looked legitimate and sounded like something he would say, again that witness told the Dallas Morning News that he had never been shown the documents by CBS and they were only read to him. CBS responded to the font allegations by claiming the owners of the Times New Roman font said it had existed since 1931, the problem is they ignore the fact that the Haas Atlas states Times Roman was only available for printing and not on typewriters at the time in question, 1972-73 when the memos were allegedly created. Further CBS pointed to the superscript evidence and showed another document from Bush�s guard record that also contained a superscript, the problem with their example was it was not only in a completely different font, but the superscript itself was not raised above the top of the text as it was with the memos and is in Microsoft Word, the program reported to have created the forgeries.
Even as more and more independent exports come forward and the experts CBS hired come forward to state they believe the documents to be forged, Dan Rather is sticking to his reporting. He claims he received the documents from an �unimpugnable� source and believes them to be authentic. But is Dan Rather knowingly ignoring the mounting evidence for purposes of discrediting President Bush or is he merely the patsy of the Democratic National Committee?
On September 14, 2004, the Dallas Morning News reported the secretary of Jerry Killian, Marian Carr Knox, who purportedly typed the documents used by CBS stated, "These are not real." She went on to tell the DrudgeReport, �I typed memos that had this information in them, but I did not type these memos.� By making that statement, Knox has not only exposed the obvious forgery of the documents, but has vilified CBS for its reporting on the story. She claims every element in the memos is true and may have been produced from source memos she did type.
The American Spectator reported that a research staffer inside the DNC had received the documents written by Jerry Killian from "a retired military officer" six weeks prior to the CBS story. That same staffer claims senior staff in the DNC and Kerry�s campaign had seen the documents. The staffer further stated questions of the authenticity of the documents had been raised and as a result the documents were passed on to the Kerry campaign to decide how to proceed.
With no proof to support Marian Knox�s claims we are left to believe what she is saying about the existence of real memos as truth because she has come forward to tell the truth about the forged documents. Had democratic operatives put Knox before the media, with no corroborating documentation, her claims would have immediately been dismissed as the lunatic ravings of an anti-Bush political activist. Now the forged documents themselves are the documentation supporting her story.
So the question is once again before us, was Dan Rather a patsy or a conspirator? Did the DNC or Kerry�s campaign create and distribute these documents and deliver them to CBS, among other news outlets, in the hopes that just one would be so eager to run with the story that they wouldn�t check the facts or did they conspire with Dan Rather and CBS? In doing so, did they create the documents in such an amateurish fashion so that they would instantly be discovered as forgeries by independent experts for the sole purpose of circulating the memos on a massive media scale to make sure everyone knew of them and what they contained? Could they have hatched and successfully enacted such an ingenious plan, doing so all for the sole purpose of providing supporting documentation for the allegations made by one loan secretary with an agenda?
Have fun,
j
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