Dan Rather: "My Story Was True"

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8. The documents looked completely authentic

Last edited Tue Dec 10, 2013, 01:45 AM - Edit history (1)

I spent a lot of time staring at them and looking at what other people had to say about them, and there was no way they could have been created on a computer.

The fonts were compatible with variable-spacing typewriters of the time.

There were irregularities in the letters and the baseline of the kind you would get on a typewriter but never on a computer.

The address header in a couple of them was off center and slightly tilted compared to the body of the letter. This is something that would happen in the old days if you created a letterhead on the cheap by typing the address on one sheet of paper and then making multiple photocopies of that part alone for future use.

The problem was that the documents were not the originals but xeroxes of the originals -- and that meant there was no way to verify them. But in appearance, they were totally period-appropriate.