September 15, 2004- Dan Rather, who has been a notorious Democratic operative since his biased account of the Kennedy Assassination was broadcast on November 22, 1963, has been definitively exposed as a fraud and a cheat – at least the Republican machine says so on the talk shows, on the right wing blogs and websites, and on the Internet’s political forums.

According to the messages pounded out loudly, Rather was at best a dupe and at worst a willing participant in a fraud presumably originating in the Kerry Campaign. Citing the opinions of “typeface experts” and others the claim is that the documents shown to illustrate the 60 Minutes story could not have been produced in 1972 and were therefore forgeries. The banging of the drums drowns out the unanswered real questions raised by the CBS story and diverts attention to accusations of forgery.

The voracious talk show wolves refer to the documents as forgeries as though that was proven even though there is a paucity of evidence to prove their claims. A fair and balanced examination of the facts starts with the proposition that no one, not even representatives of CBS News have seen the original documents. CBS had only copies and every other so-called expert has seen only degraded images in copies of the CBS copies. No questioned document examiner worthy of being called as a witness would express an unqualified opinion as to the authenticity or lack thereof based solely on an examination of a copy.

Marian Carr Knox, the 86 year old lady who was Lt. Col. Jerry Killian’s secretary in 1972 does not remember typing the questioned documents. She say that the memos used to illustrate the multi-sourced 60 Minutes story used language that she does not remember as being commonly used by TANG personnel in 1972 citing the word “billets” as an example. The Bush Brigade grabs that comment as proof of a perfidious forgery. Except that she does remember Lt. Col. Killian expressing the same concerns as those contained in the questioned memoranda and featured in the CBS story. While she doubts that the memos are authentic she supports their content and suggests that if they were fabricated it was by someone trying to accurately reflect other memoranda that she does remember typing that did express the same concerns based upon the same facts – facts that the Bush Brigade hopes will not be heard under the thunder of their drums.

The fact is that the memoranda have been questioned but they have not been proven to be inauthentic. The fact is that there is one witness who was there and who typed similar memoranda for Col. Killian. And the fact is that the witness supports the proposition that the questioned documents accurately reflect the Colonel’s perception of George W. Bush and his service or lack thereof with the Texas Air Guard. Regardless of whether the CBS memos are genuine or are pastiches faithful to the original author’s recorded recollections the underlying facts reported in the multi-sourced CBS investigation raise questions. The Bush Brigade responds to the questions by saying. “The memorandum is discredited because it was reported by Dan Rather and not Bret Hume and, besides, we have gotten away with not answering these same questions before.”

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REBUTTAL:  CBS moves beyond wrong - they are now full fledged frauds - D. Eberhard

Originally, CBS could be faulted for shoddy and deceptive journalism for it's failure to adequately verify the faked documents regarding the deceased Col Killian, the documents alleged author.
Lt. Col. Jerry Killian passed away in 1984 yet somehow, documents which would have shown that Killian had lied on official reports regarding Lt Bush, somehow managed to survive his passing and slipped into the hands of "somebody". Who is that somebody? Seems to be a logical questions to ask. Yet CBS never explained this.

Now Dan Rather and CBS bring us a "secretary" who they hold up as Killian's "personal secretary" who says on one hand the documents are fake and at the same time do represent the truth. Let's take CBS's latest representation as truth for a moment - this means that CBS is acknowledging that their story has been based on a lie, a lie that CBS is guilty of pushing as truth to the American people. This is an outrage.

Now the second part, where the secretary says the info in the now proven false memos is indeed correct. I'm sorry, but I am not buying the testimony of a secretary that cannot be answered by the deceased Col Killian. I'll reasonably have to accept his written documentation of the times as the official record.

We have the former wife of the deceased Col Killian and the words of his son, a former military man himself who say the opposite of the secretary. If I'm on a jury, I am going with the preponderance of the evidence here.

CBS is now forever tainted not only because they ran with a false story but because they have continued to live in a land of denial about their original mistake. This continuing behavior suggests something worse about Rather, CBS News Managing Editor, and their trustworthiness. - D. Eberhard
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