September 10, 2004
Docudrama
Fake or not, the CBS papers are damaged goods, and the Guard story is now done...
The CBS report on the umpteenth iteration of analysis of the President's National Guard service created a watershed moment, where the wired collective demonstrated it's power over old cliquish media power. Calling into question questionable documents, an avalanche of analysis and logic turned the story on it's head.
Like old meat, the mere appearance of spoilage ruins the meal, and whether or not the documents are real is now academic, vis à vie the National Guard accusations themselves. Anyone with the faintest disinclination to believe the story will do so, and anyone inclined to use the story against the President will do so with a rhetorical whiffle bat - full of air and likely to miss. Furthermore, this story was already on it's third iteration, and with CBS News and Dan Rather twisting in the wind on this issue, it's now dead for the campaign, even if the issue already was a political zombie - a story that moved with the appearance of life, but was really dead.
The heavy lifting on this issue wasn't done by CBS, which was inclined to run with a story that fit their own perceptions of political reality, but was done by intrepid, keen-eyed internet users. Anyone wanting a detailed history can visit PowerLine, Slings And Arrows, Instapundit, Polipundit, and Hugh Hewitt - between these sources, you will find links to all relevant information and analysis, as well as some enjoyable reading on other topics of the day.
There are ways to greatly increase our confidence in the documents authenticity/inauthenticity - first and foremost would be to examine the originals, or at least the lowest-order copies. Determining the age of the paper will be very easy, as well that of the inking substance. More telling would be examination of known-good documents from the same office, to evaluate their makeup - are they kerned, line spaced uniformly for the width of the page, do they use the same typeface, share the same abbreviation, scriptings, and decimalizations (1st Lt. or 1st LT). This should be very easy to do - to put the matter somewhat aside, produce a known, verifiably authentic document from the same office showing the same characteristics.
Unless CBS produces their primary source materials, the black-eye for the network won't just be on their logo.
Posted by MEC2 at September 10, 2004 10:25 PM