CBS finally released the results of their investigation into Rathergate.
As you may recall, Dan Rather came up with a supposed memo prior to November's elections which was critical of President Bush's service int he Texas Air National Guard. Only problem was that it was a forgery and a very blatantly poor one at that. Charles Johnson typed the text of the memo into MS Word with its default settings and the two matched up perfectly. There were no true-proportional or kerning typewriters in common use at that time.
Wizbang has some synopses here, here, here and here:
bq. Snippets From The CBS PDF (1 Update)
Wizbang will read 234 pages so you won't have to. (This will updated often)
bq. This is just too funny. The whole thing started when Mapes went cruising the lefty moonbat sites and gets suckered.
bq. From page 59:
Paul also mentions the ten "serious defects" in the preparation and reporting of the story - item two is a doozey: bq. The most serious defects in the reporting and production of the September 8 Segment were:On Monday, August 23, Mapes learned that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett was rumored to have important documents regarding the President?s TexANG service. Paul Lukasiak, who operates a website on which he posts disparaging analyses of President Bush?s TexANG service, told Mapes that another blogger, Linda Starr, had seen new TexANG documents regarding President Bush. Starr hosts a website that recently contained the slogan, ?Bush lied, Americans died,? and is the editor of Online Journal, an online newsletter often critical of President Bush. Mapes contacted Starr, who responded that she believed that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett had a two-page, classified document regarding President Bush?s TexANG service, and Starr speculated that it might be a disciplinary report. This disciplinary report was thought to relate to an assessment of whether Lieutenant Bush was fit to fly jets armed with nuclear weapons. Starr 60 told Mapes that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett was trying to determine the best way to disseminate the information to journalists ?without leaving any fingerprints.?
And who made the false statement? Dan Rather, that's who. He lied on prime-time TV. Hindrocket at Power Line has a very excellent in-depth analysis as well. bq. I've now read the Thornburgh report in its entirety, and have just finished giving an interview to CBS News, some (small) portion of which is likely to be on the evening news tonight. bq. In general, the Thornburgh report is better than I expected. It criticizes 60 Minutes harshly, and is a treasure trove of factual information. However, while the report is damning, the question is whether it is damning enough. In two key respects, the report walks up to the precipice, but declines to jump. Read the rest for a very interesting account of the personalities at work in the CBS heirarchy...1. The failure to obtain clear authentication of any of the Killian documents from any document examiner; 2. The false statement in the September 8 Segment that an expert had authenticated the Killian documents when all he had done was authenticate one signature from one document used in the Segment;
