Forgerygate
The big question of the day is whether the memos from President Bush's National Guard days are forgeries or not. I'm not an expert, so I won't go into whether they are or not. Although, from what I've heard, I tend to believe they are forgeries.
Why in the world would Dan Rather air these documents without having them tested 9 ways to Sunday is beyond my imagination. If it is proven that these memos are forgeries, that will be what Dan Rather is forever known - falling for and perpetrating a forgery. It won't matter that he didn't author the memos. As a journalist, he is responsible for authenticating his material and sources. I don't care for Mr. Rather, and haven't watched his broadcasts in years, but it's hard for me that a journalist of his caliber is involved in this scandal. I read that Rather and CBS had the documents for six weeks before airing them. Surely, they authenticated the memos before airing them? It would be absolute height of stupidity and arrogance to believe the public would accept the memos because CBS and Dan Rather said they were authentic.
Now, supposing these are forgeries, who would have authored them? I have the feeling that the author is youngish, late teens to early/mid twenties, and male. It just doesn't feel like a female is involved or someone older than, say, thirty. I haven't heard anything about where Dan Rather got the memos. It might be out there, loud and clear, and I've missed it, but still, I haven't come across it.
Some say they came from Karl Rove. I can't figure out why unless it was to have them accepted, and then to prove they are fake and cast doubt on Rather and CBS. I doubt that. I don't believe they came directly from Kerry and Company. If it comes back to the Democrats, they will lose votes and they don't dare risk that. Maybe from one of the 527's? It would have to be one that supports Kerry. I can't see a Bush supporting 527 doing it.
Maybe Dan Rather has joined Al Gore in going completely around the bend and decided that it would be worth risking his reputation to bring Bush down. I doubt this, too.
As for the why, I have a couple of thoughts:
One is that someone, a Bush-hater of course, created these memos in an mis-guided attempt to give proof to what he or she knows for a fact: that Bush failed to fulfill his Guard service and is unfit for office. It's sad that anyone hates someone so much that they will go to such lengths to keep them from office. Assuming that the forger is a Democrat, it's sad that this person has so little faith in his party that he feels that this might be the only way to keep Bush from being re-elected.
My second thought is that this was perpetrated by a person who thought it would be a good joke to see who would fall for these faked documents. He may have had some connection to CBS, such as a producer, or may have just started asking questions to find out who would bite.
The big question of the day is whether the memos from President Bush's National Guard days are forgeries or not. I'm not an expert, so I won't go into whether they are or not. Although, from what I've heard, I tend to believe they are forgeries.
Why in the world would Dan Rather air these documents without having them tested 9 ways to Sunday is beyond my imagination. If it is proven that these memos are forgeries, that will be what Dan Rather is forever known - falling for and perpetrating a forgery. It won't matter that he didn't author the memos. As a journalist, he is responsible for authenticating his material and sources. I don't care for Mr. Rather, and haven't watched his broadcasts in years, but it's hard for me that a journalist of his caliber is involved in this scandal. I read that Rather and CBS had the documents for six weeks before airing them. Surely, they authenticated the memos before airing them? It would be absolute height of stupidity and arrogance to believe the public would accept the memos because CBS and Dan Rather said they were authentic.
Now, supposing these are forgeries, who would have authored them? I have the feeling that the author is youngish, late teens to early/mid twenties, and male. It just doesn't feel like a female is involved or someone older than, say, thirty. I haven't heard anything about where Dan Rather got the memos. It might be out there, loud and clear, and I've missed it, but still, I haven't come across it.
Some say they came from Karl Rove. I can't figure out why unless it was to have them accepted, and then to prove they are fake and cast doubt on Rather and CBS. I doubt that. I don't believe they came directly from Kerry and Company. If it comes back to the Democrats, they will lose votes and they don't dare risk that. Maybe from one of the 527's? It would have to be one that supports Kerry. I can't see a Bush supporting 527 doing it.
Maybe Dan Rather has joined Al Gore in going completely around the bend and decided that it would be worth risking his reputation to bring Bush down. I doubt this, too.
As for the why, I have a couple of thoughts:
One is that someone, a Bush-hater of course, created these memos in an mis-guided attempt to give proof to what he or she knows for a fact: that Bush failed to fulfill his Guard service and is unfit for office. It's sad that anyone hates someone so much that they will go to such lengths to keep them from office. Assuming that the forger is a Democrat, it's sad that this person has so little faith in his party that he feels that this might be the only way to keep Bush from being re-elected.
My second thought is that this was perpetrated by a person who thought it would be a good joke to see who would fall for these faked documents. He may have had some connection to CBS, such as a producer, or may have just started asking questions to find out who would bite.
And one last thought, someone created the documents as a "spoof", if you will, of a document that might have existed. He created the document for his own amusement because he could. He might have shown it to someone, maybe emailed it to someone else. Of course, we all know what happens when something gets into email and the Internet. Suddenly it becomes God's Honest Truth. Of course, someone somewhere along the email line got hold of it and decided it was proof of the President's unfitness for office, or even as stated before, wanted to see who would fall for these documents. This person might not know where they originated, and presented them to, say, a CBS producer, depending on CBS to authenticate the documents.
I could be very wrong, but I have a feeling that somewhere, someone is having a good laugh at Dan Rather's expense.
Here is a link to The Shape of Days. They've charted the timeline from the time when Dan Rather first aired the memos through the exposure of the memos as possible forgeries. About 18 hours on the Internet proved they could be forgeries, if not outright forgeries.
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