Monday, March 17, 2014
A Tale of Two Forged Presidential Documents...
by LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD March 17, 2014
On September 2, 2004, during an interview with First Lady Laura Bush, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather seemed to couch a threat
in the form of a question: "Now that friends and supporters of the
President have raised the issue of John Kerry's combat record in
Vietnam, do you or do you not think it's fair now for the Kerry people
to come back and dig anew into your husband's military service record?"
That was less than a week before Rather used forged memos as evidence in
stories attacking President George W. Bush's National Guard Service.
On September 8, 2004, after
weeks of ignoring or denigrating anti-Kerry charges voiced by fellow
Vietnam veterans, Rather led the Evening News with supposed new proof
that George W. Bush had shirked his duties as a Texas Air National
Guardsman 30 years earlier: "There are new questions tonight about
President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in the late
1960s and early '70s and about his insistence that he met his military
service obligations. CBS News has exclusive information, including
documents, that now sheds new light
on the President's service record. 60 Minutes has obtained government
documents that indicate Mr. Bush may have received preferential
treatment in the Guard after not fulfilling his commitments."
Within a few hours of those documents being posted on CBS News's Web site, however, typography experts voiced skepticism
that the documents had actually originated with their alleged author
and Bush's former commanding officer, the late Lt. Colonel Jerry
Killian. As the evidence mounted, Rather stubbornly clung to the idea
that his story was bulletproof, and he derided critics as partisans and
Internet rumormongers. When he "apologized" on September 20, Rather
would not concede that the documents were forgeries, only that he and
CBS could "no longer vouch for their authenticity."
On March 1, 2011, nearly seven years later, Rather was still defending his "fake but accurate" story.
One could easily conclude that
Rather had used his cover as a journalist to engage in partisan politics
by protecting Democrat candidate John Kerry and attacking Republican
candidate George W. Bush in order to influence the outcome of the 2004
Presidential election in favor of the Democrats.
On April 27, 2011, Barack Obama presented his birth certificate to the nation on national television.
Within
a few hours of the birth certificate being posted on the White House
Web site, however, digital document experts began to voice skepticism
about its authenticity.
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