Wizblog

CBS Knew Before Broadcast

There is no serious debate any longer about the authenticity of the CBS/60 Minutes Killian documents. The only debate remaining is whether Dan Rather and CBS were duped, or were aware that their "evidence" was fraudulent and went ahead with it anyway in the service of their pro-Kerry agenda.

This report from ABC News (that bastion of right-wing propaganda) puts another nail in Dan Rather's coffin:

Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina, told ABC News she saw problems right away with the one document CBS hired her to check the weekend before the broadcast.

"I found five significant differences in the questioned handwriting, and I found problems with the printing itself as to whether it could have been produced by a typewriter," she said.

Will says she sent the CBS producer an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.

"I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story," Will said.

But the documents became a key part of the 60 Minutes II broadcast questioning President Bush's National Guard service in 1972. CBS made no mention that any expert disputed the authenticity. (emphasis mine - ed.)

A couple of days ago, it might have been possible for CBS and Rather to save some degree of face by coming out and admitting that they were taken in by the fake documents and apologizing only for the sin of shoddy journalism. I suppose one reason why they didn't is that they knew the testimony of people like Emily Will would eventually come out. Now their agenda is on full display and their journalistic credibility is in tatters.