CBS

[Atrocities]

Well now, looks like the proof that they were fake was at Kinkos in Texas. LOL - so ends Rathergate.

[Will]

Link? I'm searching for it on google, and all I'm seeing is that the memos were faxed to CBS from a Kinkos in Texas... hardly proof that they're fake. Proof that they are fake would be getting the computer that the memos were alegedly created with, and seeing the exact files. It's very likely that the memos could be faxed photocopies of originals (since most stories seem to indicate originals were destroyed), and I somehow doubt that "document experts" can determine whether something was made in the 1970s with a typewriter or in 2000s with a computer after going through at least two reproductions like that (scan/copy, then scan/fax). It doesn't really help that the only comments coming from the White House or the President are along the lines of "look where they came from, then you'll understand". Nobody denying the content, nobody saying that Bush was responsible and completed all his duties without help from more powerful individuals to modify his record. It almost seems like they're using the whole thing as a political tool to let the crazy ultra-right wing pundit types throw out the typical accusations of a "vast left-wing conspiracy" and the "Liberal Media". Which pretty much only accomplishes polarizing the country even more than it already is, and also has the side effect of being very good for Bush. When the opinion on a national level is as close to split as it can possibly be, the incumbent is almost always going to win.

Bleh.

[Atrocities]

You got me.... I miss read the article - Sunday Sept 19th Columbian. (Page A10 Second collum of the news story "The Lessons Of Rathergate.") I apologize for the confussion.

Eventually the Old Media took another look and, using news-gathering expertise unavailable to bloggers, chased the story all the way to a Kinko's in Texas.

From MSNBC - (Cleared things up.)

Strong, the former Guard officer, said Last week that when Rather showed him the documents, they contained a header showing they had been faxed to the network from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene.

Virtually every document specialist and viable news source, except CBS, are calling the memo's "Modern Day Forgeries."

"I know Dan Rather is right," Marian Carr Knox, a former secretary in Bush's Guard unit, recalled saying. The neighbor said she should do something about it. So she called a Houston newspaper, Knox told CBS, but did not get a call back. Dallas Morning News reporter Pete Slover soon tracked down Knox and showed her copies of the Killian memos.

"These are not real," declared Knox, who said she handled Killian's memos. "They're not what I typed, and I would have typed them for him."

Now I am not questioning wether or not Bush received favorable treatment while in the TexANG, to think otherwise is just silly, what I am questioning are the memo's.

I have read and according to FOX, the rumor mill is ablaze that these memo's were dilibrately made to discredit CBS news and Dan Rather. I am sorry, but I find that laughable to say the least. CBS thought they had a smoking gun, it turned out it was not. They wanted to save face in the intensifying light of the truth, and they hurt their crediblity. These things happen. Remember the exploding chevy trucks that Date Line faked?

I have no doubts that CBS honestly felt that the memo's were real, or at least had a more likely than not that they are real mentality toward them with the view that if they were not authentic, that it would be up to the white house to prove it, and that was a huge mistake given all the Blogs out there.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6039473/
And an article in the Sunday Columbian ( http://www.columbian.com/ ) - by Beth Gillin.

And as much as I hate the thought, I feel Kerry has this election in the bag. (Thanks to brillant election tactics and under handed tactics and the support of the liberal left main stream media.)

[Will]

Ok, I couldn't find the article in the Columbian, but the MSNBC article clarified a few things. After reading through it, I would say that the inconsistencies that were brought up are not covered by duplication, and it is probable that the memos are partially or entirely fake (ie, parts could be from actual memos, other parts "reconstructed" in a computer). However, that doesn't mean that the content was false, as a lot of people are trying to claim; "if pigs fly, then bacon comes from pigs". Conclusion can be (and in the example, is) true regardless of the premise.

So, journalists are now focusing on the accusations made by the memos, rather than the memos themselves, which should have been the focus all along. The forgery stuff is secondary, and only served as a distraction; in the end, it is irrelevent as long as it is clear that favourable treatment was given. Some of the things disputed in the documents, like the Col. that was supposedly putting pressure to gloss over negative details being hon. discharged a year earlier, don't even seem like valid arguements to me. If he's retired, he can still influence things that happen in the ranks, it's not like retirement means he cuts himself off from all ties to the Guard. And so on...

I guess we'll see as the week goes on how this affects things, but it looks like a (after a fashion) Bush supporter is starting to be convinced of a Kerry victory, and a (after a fashion) Kerry supporter is convinced of a Bush re-election... things are going to be confusing for a while.

This strict two-party business is starting to get to me even more now though. Things are so polarized, and there doesn't seem much hope of things getting better, that a civil war and/or hostile takeover to a single party system almost seems plausible in 25 years. Scary.

[Atrocities]

However, that doesn't mean that the content was false

I Agree.