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Home Front: Politix
WaPo Media Pile On: Expert Cited by CBS Says He Didn't Authenticate Papers
2004-09-14
EFL - Reg Req'd
By Michael Dobbs and Howard Kurtz
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.
And for another reason, he's a handwriting expert, not a documents expert.
Matley's comments came amid growing evidence challenging the authenticity of the documents aired Wednesday on CBS's "60 Minutes." The program was part of an investigation asserting that Bush benefited from political favoritism in getting out of commitments to the Texas Air National Guard. On last night's "CBS Evening News," Rather said again that the network "believes the documents are authentic."
"They constitute evidence that Microsoft Word was in use in the early 70s. It's indisuputable!"
A detailed comparison by The Washington Post of memos obtained by CBS News with authenticated documents on Bush's National Guard service reveals dozens of inconsistencies, ranging from conflicting military terminology to different word-processing techniques. The analysis shows that half a dozen Killian memos released earlier by the military were written with a standard typewriter using different formatting techniques from those characteristic of computer-generated documents. CBS's Killian memos bear numerous signs that are more consistent with modern-day word-processing programs, particularly Microsoft Word. "I am personally 100 percent sure that they are fake," said Joseph M. Newcomer, author of several books on Windows programming, who worked on electronic typesetting techniques in the early 1970s. Newcomer said he had produced virtually exact replicas of the CBS documents using Microsoft Word formatting and the Times New Roman font.
After Charles did it at LGF...
Posted by:Frank G

#27  


Super H. : Area 51 at night...

Dan Rather is hiding somewhere. Contacting Kenneth about frequencies and such...

Posted by: BigEd   2004-09-14 5:04:43 PM  

#26  If I were a journalist looking to breech the CBS citadel, I would call the Post Office in question. If the PO Box doesn't exist or didn't belong to the Texas Guard, then the CBS wall falls down. CBS probably already has an operative on the way to firebomb the Post Office.

Another angle would be to find the typist for the legitimate documentation in Bush's record. Killian didn't know how to type, yet many of the documents released by the White House from Bush's record are typed. Obviously, Killian had an enlisted person who performed a portion of his administrative tasks. Where is that person? That person would certainly know whether Killian had a secret laser printer hidden in his office - possibly procured from area 51.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-09-14 4:53:36 PM  

#25  Well, I'm not in the media biz but I'd guess that CBS has a loyal following among heartland 55+ year-olds who don't bother with this newfangled innernet thing and don't listen to radio neither.

I'd guess there are several very distinct demographics that could easily be targeted by network and cable news if they chose to go the full partisan route. The bicoastal and gay left-lib baby boomers are an affluent, upscale, desirable niche. Beats selling geritol to a dying market.

The other route is to go young. Maybe not as young as Pepsi but perhaps the iPod and Dell market. I'd bet they could be pulled with streaming video news delivered over the web and aggregating multiple sources, including bloggers and expert sources from all over the WWW
Posted by: lex   2004-09-14 3:42:30 PM  

#24   My bet is CBS won't back down because it would hurt their cred with their core market to do so.

Lex, what core market? I don't know about 60 Minutes or their spin-off, but CBS News pulls, what, about 1.5? (ABC pulls about 4)
Posted by: Pappy   2004-09-14 3:35:28 PM  

#23  mhw - but the pretense is wearing thin. On many issues the NYT's reporters simply don't have anything like the expertise or access to expertise that the blogosphere can rally. All the Times has left is its readers' trust. Which is why, again, a niche strategy aka preaching to the choir is the likely path forward.
Posted by: lex   2004-09-14 3:02:57 PM  

#22  As John Podhoretz titled his editorial in the NY Post, "CBS Forges Ahead".

Reminds me of Tolkoen's, "The Hobbit".
After his 1st enounter with Gollum, Bilbo tells what happened (sort of) to Gandalf. To which the old wizard replies, "Mr. Baggins, your story has the ring of truth..."

I think "Gandalf" Podhoretz senses a trainwreck coming.
Posted by: BigEd   2004-09-14 12:38:50 PM  

#21  lex,
but they haven't abandoned the pretense of objectivity --- and a lot of smaller papers use the NYT to form their own views
Posted by: mhw   2004-09-14 12:36:05 PM  

#20  I don't care what they claim, they're obviously now a niche publication dedicated to bicoastal liberals, gays and college-educated NPR types in big cities and college towns. Note the vast increase in coverage of gay issues and fashion during Pinch's tenure. A smart marketing strategy that targets a high-income, 30-55 year-old demographic. Fox is doing the same.

At some point, CBS News will drop the pretense and cater directly to the NPR/aging baby-boomer crowd. No one under 30 watches network news anymore, so why bother going after the increasingly centrist or right-center under-30 market?
Posted by: lex   2004-09-14 12:19:05 PM  

#19  lex
Except the NYT claims to be objective - they still have the slogan
Posted by: mhw   2004-09-14 12:10:13 PM  

#18  My bet is CBS won't back down because it would hurt their cred with their core market to do so. They're likely to do what Pinch SUlzberger's Times has already done, ie abandon the pretense of "objectivity" and strive for a consistent left-lib "perspective" to news selection and reporting.

We will soon see the same kind of openly partisan media alignment that you see in Britain (Torygraph, Al-Guardian etc). Probably a good strategy for increasing shareholder value at Viacom's floundering news subsidiary.
Posted by: lex   2004-09-14 11:57:03 AM  

#17  It's preposterous to believe that anyone could "authenticate" a copy of a copy of a copy... simply ridiculous.
So even if their signature expert believes one signature to be authentic... so what? Takes one minute with Photoshop.
Jeez the Hitler Diaries were at least handwritten and dipped into coffee to make them look old.
Posted by: True German Ally   2004-09-14 11:54:51 AM  

#16  If this story were a jet fighter (that's Dan on the right).
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2004-09-14 11:50:00 AM  

#15  Here's prediction:
Rather admits the documents could be fake on Friday after the evening news is complete hoping it will be old news by Monday.
Posted by: mhw   2004-09-14 11:36:23 AM  

#14  for drudge's document, I'll throw in a little
irritant of my own: the ones and lower case L's
look identical. This was true for nearly all
manual typewriters I've seen -- heck, I learned on a typewriter which didn't have a "one" key.
Posted by: Brutus   2004-09-14 9:51:38 AM  

#13  The NYT isn't piling on yet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/politics/campaign/14guard.html
I suspect that they'll discover the truth on November 3 and decide it's no longer newsworthy.
Posted by: Tom   2004-09-14 8:31:57 AM  

#12  different agenda
Posted by: Frank G   2004-09-14 8:19:52 AM  

#11  WashPost has done a good job on Rather.

However, they've barely mentioned Kerry's Cambodia lie.

They also didn't cover the Vets Against Kerry demo near the capital.

Posted by: mhw   2004-09-14 8:01:32 AM  

#10  The MSM vultures are circling over Rather's desiccating carcass as I write this. Their coverage of this topic tonight was just slamming the door in their thumb again to make sure it's really broken.

I checked my favorites on my remote tonight. I already boycott them.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2004-09-14 4:23:25 AM  

#9  "CBS News produced a new expert, Bill Glennon, an information technology consultant."

That's utterly funny. Hilariousaa! The guy was a former IBM typewriter repairman.

Prostitute - Adult Industry Professional
Newspaper boy - Information Technology Distributor
Posted by: Zarathustra   2004-09-14 3:44:43 AM  

#8  Game on! That's a pretty brutal piece of reporting by a member of the MSM going after one of their own. It's only a matter of time until the scavengers arrive en masse to pick apart the carcass.
Posted by: AzCat   2004-09-14 3:15:26 AM  

#7  Easy Brute, I have noticed the similarities between ALLGGGOOORREEE and Moore-on. Both are ready for the Subway diet, time to staple their lips closed.
Posted by: Capt America   2004-09-14 1:02:45 AM  

#6  Drudge is having fun with this stuff. Evidently, GW was in the Air Force - they overlooked the 120 days of active duty required I assume for officer training prior to flight school. Drudge provides this link to the actual document which looks an awful lot different than a word document - I noticed one spelling mistake - no spell check available to the enlisted person who typed this.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-09-14 12:46:56 AM  

#5  Misread your name Mr. Goldman. At first glance I thought it was "Abu Goldman". Now *that* would be a catchy jihadi nom-de-guerre.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2004-09-14 12:46:47 AM  

#4  A copy is just that, regardless of methods used to produce it -- what's all the noise about?
Posted by: Abdul Goldman   2004-09-14 12:40:20 AM  

#3  Damnit, Brutus, when are you going to get off the dime and take a stand? All this wishy-washy stuff, pfeh.

Lol! Good posts, bro!
Posted by: .com   2004-09-14 12:18:16 AM  

#2  Next week I'll discover a document, which I've been keeping up my ass, showing that Michael Moore has been skipping his weight watchers meetings.
Posted by: Brutus   2004-09-14 12:14:57 AM  

#1  I have knowledge of "Texas Air National Guard Operations" They fscking fly planes. Would I qualify, too? I wonder if such illustrious knowledge such as knowing that swift boats operate motor boats on rivers would make me sufficiently an expert to synthesize discover documents regarding Kerry's inability to serve due to seasickness?
Posted by: Brutus   2004-09-14 12:13:09 AM  

00:00