The forgery debate - typical right-wing tactic

[Dookus]

People are flipping out here. Look at how this occurred:

The documents were released BY THE GOVERNMENT under a FOIA request. A few freepers mistakenly assert that the typeface used did not exist at the time. That has clearly been disproven. They raise a stink.

Matt Drudge then reports that "people are saying they're forgeries". Then legitimate news outlets use Drudge as their kicking off point to raise the same questions.

This is EXACTLY how the right-wing does this stuff. Get somebody to say something, then get the mainstream media to report that "people are saying....."

Then it gets wide play, and idiots around the country, including way too many here, buy into it.

[AP]

1. That, or one of the four IS a forgery that GOP stuck in there so that...

...people would talk more about that one forgery rather than the other three very incriminating documents.

[Chomskyite]

2. It sure can't help Bush, though.

You'll never hear the White House say these may be forgeries. That says something to me right there. They'd just rather the discussion died as soon as possible.

[Maddy McCall]

3. Wait. lemme get this straight...

You are saying that there are idiots at DU?

:-)

[the Kelly Gang]

11. not genuine DUers..but there could easily be lurkers

[dennis4868]

4. i thought.....

the docs were not obtained through a FOIA request but were the p[ersonal office files of Killian or whatever his name is....

[kestrel91316]

5. Keep repeating after me....................

"As of the late 1960s, the IBM Selectric II (a special higher-tech version) did indeed have superscript and proportional spacing capability."

End of subject, freepers!

[dennis4868]

10. if you could find this info....

why cant the fucking media do their homework? Thats the media today....they simply gives both sides of the story and never tell you what the god damn truth is....

[democracyindanger]

6. Hallelujah

Everytime you link to Drudge, God kills a kitten.

[zulchzulu]

7. That was the only card they had left

Keeping the story alive is a good thing depending on who's doing the spinning...

[JI7]

8. it's also the exact opposite of what happens with the Kerry case

where all the proof leads to his service and his side of the story being true. but some kerry haters start spreading lies and drudge reports it along with fox news and then all the others pick up on it.even though the facts show those who are attacking kerry are lying they act as if it's just a case of showing 2 sides while ignoring the facts.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Meanwhile more people killed in Iraq, more jobs lost

and Osama's guy shows up on the 6:00 news.

[Bush was AWOL]

12. This is Dan Rather and CBS

Rather is the most credible man in journalism today, imo. Who has it right, Dan Rather or the Freepers and Drudge. I'll go with my original opinion that Rather and CBS would not run this story unless they double checked their facts first. I hope this questioning urges Rather to run a follow up on Sunday night. Hell, he should do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of it. As long as it is in the news it damages Bush.

[Dookus]

14. ooh... good idea

if they can present more evidence authenticating the docs, Sunday's 60 Minutes would be the best forum to do so.

[ContinentalOp]

25. Wouldn't it be great...

if he ran a follow-up and also outlined where the forgery allegations came from? Drawing a simple and clear connection from right-wing extremist discussion board ---> Drudge ---> Fox et al.

[Dookus]

26. It sure would be great

a real story about how the modern media are so easily suckered.

[ContinentalOp]

27. Too bad it will never happen.

Unless you happen to be a producer at CBS Dookus :) But seriously your intial post lays it out so clearly and this sequence of events just seems to happen again and again. In some strange way I can forgive a bunch of numbskulls online for eating up the lies but the media??? It's so depressing.

[geek tragedy]

13. Not FOIA.

They got them from another source. No way Bush would have let these surface.

[Bleacher Creature]

15. Huh??

So Sludge is saying that somebody went to all the trouble to create fake docs impugning *'s service, but didn't think not to use a computer and laser printer.

Nice try.

[Algorem]

16. What's forged is his name on that plane.

There just happens to be a mothballed fighter jet with his name on it.Give me a break from the bullshit.

[Dookus]

17. huh?

whose name on what plane?

[Algorem]

19. They showed a "mothballed" fighter jet with his name stenciled next

to the cockpit,"Lt. George W. Bush" or whatever,all ready for cameras at all times I guess.Very believable.

[Dookus]

20. ah, I missed that one

[mantis]

18. Wait a friggin minute

These documents were given to CBS by the Gov??

Are you serious? And now they are saying they
are fake? Isn't that like bush saying "These are
fake....I know...cause I forged them"

This is getting strange. How does this HELP
Bush even if proven fake?

[Dookus]

21. I'm looking into this now....

There WAS a big dump of documents under the FOIA this week, and I thought these were part of that. Now it seems they may not have been, and that CBS acquired them separately.

However, the White House released these same memos, but I've heard people here say the White House only released what CBS had faxed them.

But even if the documents did NOT come from the government:

a) OTHER government documents released this week show Bush didn't fulfill his obligations and

b) it doesn't matter. The documents in this dicussion are being called forgeries based ONLY on the discredited argument that such a typeface didn't exist at the time.

[John_H]

22. It's the OJ defense.

There is no way to spin the substance. The substance is air tight. The ONLY thing they can do is say the documentation of the facts is inauthentic. Jeez, people. Get a grip.

[Dookus]

23. What's annoying is

that we've seen this tactic countless times, and people STILL fall for it.

I remember the night Drudge reported Kerry was shtupping an intern. Some folk here were ready to give up on the election.

[enigmatic]

28. I'm glad I wasn't around for that..

If it was anything like this, it would have driven me insane..

[drhilarius]

24. kick.