September 12, 2004
From the desk of Jane Galt:More inside baseball
Okay, the schadenfreude is back. But there are some odd elements of CBS' defense:
1) Apparently, Dan Rather says they've been working on this story since the 2000 election. What's with the timing?
2) What's with the anonymous experts? I've never heard of such a thing. Anonymous sources, sure, but document examiners aren't like priests or employees -- they expect to testify about what they do. That's what they get paid for. How come CBS's won't come forward? Are they really that afraid of Karl Rove's Special Document Examiner Hit Squad?
Posted by Jane Galt at September 12, 2004 09:42 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksCBS doesn't have any expert except Marcel Matley. Matley is a handwriting expert, not an expert in forensic typography. And even as to the signatures, Matley has said you can't authenticate a signature from a copy, which is all CBS has.
You CAN prove a forgery, whether related to the signature or the typography, from a copy. Every typography expert who has exaimined the documents has concluded that they are frauds. But CBS has declared the investigation to be over, with no need to call in any expert on the typography issues at all.
Posted by: The Raving Atheist on September 12, 2004 12:08 PMAccording to Newsweek's story, Rather might be telling the truth about having worked on this since 2000, since one of the apparent sources of the claim, Bill Burkett, has been making this charge since the 1998 Bush re-election run for governor against Garry Mauro (a friend of Bill Clinton from their days working on the 1972 McGovern campaign in Texas, for whatever that's worth).
Burkett's charges have been out there for six years and have been the subject of previous news and broadcast reports. But CBS may not have thought they were worth revisiting until these new "bombshell" documents showed up.
Posted by: John on September 12, 2004 01:08 PMActually, I don't think fear of retaliation is so far-fetched. Remember, this is an Administration that trashed Richard Clarke and threatened to prosecute Paul O'Neil when they said nasty things about it. They attacked Joseph Wilson through his wife.
We don't know who the examiners are. What if they, or their spouses, work for the government, or for a company with a lot of government work? Do you truly believe that the White House wouldn't try to harm them?
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on September 12, 2004 07:04 PMThe buzz, via Howie Kurtz via Ace of Spades, is that CBS's expert is being told not to talk to the press.
Posted by: Brian on September 12, 2004 07:24 PMMay God Almighty bless you with flagrant discernment, friend, N may He fill-up your indelible heart withe fruit that'll never perish. Be at peace. Take the PURGATORY test on INDEX.
Posted by: Catalyst4Christ on September 12, 2004 08:06 PMIt all reminds me of the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
"We have top men working on it right now."
"Who?"
"Top men."
Heh.
Posted by: Jack on September 13, 2004 12:30 PMAs I understand, having read it on someone's site earlier today, CBS has been working on this story for years; they haven't been able to make it official because there's been no "smoking gun" document so far. Finally one emerged, basically matching the set of enquiries they've been repeatedly making, and they could finally produce their report.
Posted by: Yaron on September 13, 2004 04:43 PMComments are Closed.