Safire buys in to Freepers story that documents are forged

[RamboLiberal]

I hope this blows up all over Safire - how the hell the NYT can be called liberal when they employ obvious RW shills like him and Judith Miller.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/opinion/13safire.html?hp

Alert bloggers who knew the difference between the product of old typewriters and new word processors immediately suspected a hoax: the "documents" presented by CBS News suggesting preferential treatment in Lt. George W. Bush's National Guard service have all the earmarks of forgeries.

The copies of copies of copies that formed the basis for the latest charges were supposedly typed by Guard officer Jerry Killian three decades ago and placed in his "personal" file. But it is the default typeface of Microsoft Word, highly unlikely to have been used by that Texas colonel, who died in 1984. His widow says he could hardly type and his son warned CBS that the memos were not real.

When the mainstream press checked the sources mentioned or ignored by "60 Minutes II," the story came apart.

<snip>

The Associated Press focused on the suspicion first voiced by a blogger on the Web site Freerepublic.com about modern "superscripts" that include a raised th after a number. CBS, on the defense, claimed that "some models" of typewriters of the 70's could do that trick, and some Texas Air National Guard documents released by the White House included it.

[stopbush]

1. Wow! A DUer who reads Safire. My hat's off to you.

I can't bear to read his tripe.

[shraby]

3. Probably cause he is a day late and a dollar short.

[RamboLiberal]

6. I normally don't - but seeing the headline I just had to see

if he was trumpeting the Freepers.

And tomorrow all the RW TV/Radio shills will trot this dumb columnn out as proof even as they rail against the "liberal media" like the NYTs!

[yardwork]

2. Safire is bought and paid for since way back

And it's very interesting that he claims to be the source of a film that is now thought to have been made by Iranians while they were gassing the Kurds and blaming it on Saddam.

Years ago, Kurdish friends slipped me amateur film taken of Saddam's poison-gas attack that killed thousands in Halabja. I gave it to Dan Rather, who trusted my word on sources. Despite objections from queasy colleagues, he put it on the air.

[girl gone mad]

4. Bought and paid for is correct.

But his name is going on my list.

[Erika]

5. Saphire Lost His Integrity

when he made a hard right turn for Bush extremism. I used to respect him, I no longer can. I guess he loves those tax-cuts paid for by service cuts to the needy.

[LTRS]

7. Isn't this part mighty strange?

From Safire's opinion piece:

"That superscript, however," countered The A.P., "is in a different typeface than the one used for the CBS memos." It consulted the document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines of Paradise Valley, Ariz., and reported "she could testify in court that, beyond a reasonable doubt, her opinion was that the memos were written on a computer."

Is it not somewhat strange that the AP should just coincidently find a document examiner that is a steadfast republican party partisan? Is this not absolute proof of corruption in the press? Seems so to me.

[Julien Sorel]

8. Safire is a $2 whore.

He would say or do anything for the Republicans, and I mean anything.

[oasis]

9. Safire is a forgery of a journalist.

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. What a bunch of crap

Colonels didn't type orders or memos. Clerk typists typed 'em. I was in the Army 70-72 and never saw a fucking Colonel typing anything. Is he totally stupid?

[DemBones DemBones]

11. I can believe a high-ranking officer might

type a memo he didn't want a typist to read, can't you? It's possible, though unlikely.

It has also certainly occured to me from the beginning that he dictated it to a clerk to type, which destroys all the arguments about him not having the knowledge to use a sophisticated typewriter. I'd say it's more likely this is what was done.

An IBM Selectric shouldn't be beyond the intelligence of a colonel who "barely knew how to type," either. (That was according to his widow, quoted in Safire's article.) If he wanted to use one himself, I'm sure he could have gotten assistance from a clerk typist. Aside from coping with various bells and whistles, anyone who can read and write can type, even if slowly and laboriously.

"The non-typing colonel" is a dog that won't hunt.

[girl gone mad]

16. If you are interested..

check out the thread I started on the topic of the memos.

I just found a fascinating advertisement from Mother Earth Magazine's archives, dated May 1971. It was a very long IBM ad encouraging women to lease Selectric Composers to start a home typing business. Lots of good stuff in the article. It did get me thinking.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x796370

http://www.motherearthnews.com/index.php?page=arc&id=5307

[TexasUnderground]

13. ...

Then why would a Colonel have a private memo to himself labeled "CYA"???

The whole thing stinks of Rove trying to discredit Democrat attacks in advance.

[LibeMatt]

12. Doesn't...

...Safire still think that Mohammed Atta met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague?

[newyawker99]

14. Hi LibeMatt!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[spanone]

15. Safire has taken cheap shots at the left for years. Crusty old fart.

He'll mimick the party lines as long as he can.

[liberal_in_GA]

17. I hope Dan Rather

gets even more pissed off and wipes the floor with Safire's stupified mug.

Has anyone heard anything new from CBS about this?

[swag]

18. Why does Spiro Agnew's former speechwriter have a column in NYT?

He's not penning lines like

"Ours is the greatest nation in the country" any more. He's lost his mojo.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

19. Safire thinks this is "besmearing a president"

LOL Bill, if Bush had shown up and done his serivce there would be nothing to smear. He didn't show up for almost a year. What is there NOT to understand about that?