Safire distorted, omitted facts to discredit CBS memos (MediaMatters.org)

[joefree1]

Safire distorted, omitted facts to discredit CBS memos

New York Times columnist and former Nixon speechwriter William Safire's September 13 column alleged that controversial memos revealed by CBS's 60 Minutes on September 8 "have all the earmarks of forgery." But the column -- titled "Those Discredited Memos" -- is rife with misleading claims and outright distortions.

Implying that CBS's analysis of the documents lacks credibility since the network lacks the original documents, Safire referred in the second sentence of his column to "he copies of copies of copies that formed the basis for the latest charges." But, in fact, a September 11 Los Angeles Times article -- to which Safire himself referred later in the column -- reported that a "CBS official who spoke on condition of anonymity" said the documents "were copies of the originals." (In any case, if lack of original documents undermines CBS's analysis, then typographical judgments about them by CBS's critics are even less credible, since these critics apparently have access only to scanned PDF copies of the documents posted on the CBS website.)

In the next sentence, Safire stated that the font allegedly used in the disputed documents "is the default typeface of Microsoft Word, highly unlikely to have been used by that Texas colonel, who died in 1984." But in fact, as Media Matters for America has explained, both the font Times New Roman and its close relative, Times Roman, were created as early as 1931 and were available on 1970s-era typewriters. As this font history noted, IBM specifically hired Stanley Morison, typographical adviser to the Monotype Corporation and the designer of Times New Roman, to adapt the font for its Selectric typewriter. The article also reported that "n the early 1990s Microsoft ... hired Monotype Typography to design a series of core fonts for Windows 3.1," one of which was Times New Roman. So it's no accident that Microsoft Word's default font looks like a popular font that had been around for 50 years, including on typewriters. The New York Times reported on September 11 that "ocuments from the period show the Air Force tested the Selectric Composer as early as April 1969."

More ...
http://mediamatters.org/items/200409130006

Absence Without Leave. That kinda describes Bush right now doesn't it.


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[chelsea0011]

1. I read that and all I thought is the guy must have wrote it a week ago

All the experts, not the clowns, have said they are authentic. But Safire is gone anyway. He hasn't had anything to say for years.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Safire's a proven liar...............................

and right wing whack job. Why anyone (other than those already topped off with kool-aid) listens to anything he says is beyond me. Of course he lies and deceives, he's a Republican.

[LisaM]

3. Pat Buchanan's wife said she typed on a Selectric on Air Force 1 in 1969

She was an assistant to Nixon. She said that she had used those very typewriters (I heard this on KIRO this morning, from Bill Press.)