Rathergate.com knocks down some of the most persistent fallacies associated with the scandalous treatment of the non-scandal.

One bit the writer misses: The media keeps referring to Ms. Knox as Killian's secretary. She's nothing of the sort. She was a pool secretary, used by all the officers on the base, and without any special relationship with Killian, nor with any special insight into his thinking. The notion that Killian was sharing the contents of his "secret personal files" with some nobody from the secretarial pool is just silly.

Further, the media likes to ignore the opinion of Killian's son, as if the son wouldn't know what the father were thinking. But Killian's son was actually in the TANG serving under his father, and was a near-contemporary of Bush's.

The media can hardly claim that Killian's son, a fellow officer, had no insight into Killian's thinking while some rabidly-partisan old hen from the secretary pool was Killian's very special secret confidante.

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (5)
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What liberal media bias?

You know, because reporters are always (indiscretely if honestly) answering pollsters' questions about their party affiliation and giving away the fact they are 90% liberal Democrat, hacks and cranks like Eric Altermann claim that while the reporters are overwhelmingly liberal, the owners and "suits" are overwhelmingly conservative, which actually results in the famous conservative-bias in the media that we all know and love.

Well, first of all, this is fatuous on a basic level; reporters tend to be self-righteous pricks about following their own journalistic muses, and should a suit actually attempt to exert any influence whatsoever on their stories, it would be on the front page of the New York Times the next day and result in six months of breathless investigation-- and villification.

But, secondly: It's just pure, 100% bullshit as a factual proposition anyway. 10 of Viacom's 13 directors donate primarily to Democrats, or have actually served in Democratic Administrations.

10 Democrats. 3 non-Democrats, which may include actual independents.

So, Altermann:

What's your next bit of spin?

Posted by: Ace at 11:24 AM | Comments (2)
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Cranky Neocon has a big scoop-- Karl Rove breaks down and in a Colonel Jessup moment, proudly declares "You're damn right I did it!"

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)
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Newsmax on the case:

The Kerry campaign made an explicit reference to information in at least one of four forged military documents broadcast 14 days ago by CBS's "60 Minutes" - in a detailed campaign press release attacking President Bush's National Guard service dated months before the Sept. 8 "60 Minutes" broadcast.

Appearing in Kerry campaign literature on April 27, 2004, under the headline "Key Unanswered Questions on Bush's Record in National Guard" was the reference to "verbal orders" to recommend Bush's suspension from flying because he missed a physical - issued by Bush's commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian on Aug. 1, 1972.

One of the forged Killian memos broadcast by CBS is also dated Aug. 1, 1972, and chronicles Killian's "verbal orders" to suspend Bush:
"I conveyed my verbal orders to commander, 147th [Fighter Interceptor Group] with request for orders for suspension and covening a flight review board IAW AFM 35-13." [END OF FORGED KILLIAN MEMO EXCERPT]

The April 27 Kerry campaign press release cites Killian's "verbal orders" for suspension as a "Fact":

"FACT: The order suspending Bush from flight duty stated: 'Verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1STLT George W. Bush from flying status are confirmed Reason for Suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination. Off will comply with para 2-10, AFM 35-13. Authority: Para 2-29m, AFM 35-13. (Aeronautical Orders, Number 87, 29 September 1972)'" [END OF KERRY RELEASE EXCERPT]

In the next paragraph, the Kerry campaign cited a provision in the Air Force Manual that served as a guideline for Killian's decision to suspend Bush:

"AFM 35-13: ... After reviewing the findings of the investigation, the local commander may convene a Flying Evaluation Board or forward through command channels a detailed report of the circumstances which resulted in the officer's failure to accomplish a medical examination." [END OF KERRY RELEASE EXCERPT]

The forged Aug. 1, 1972, memo alludes to the same Air Force Manual provision, with Killian saying he's considering "covening a flight review board IAW AFM 35-13" to handle Bush's case.

Newsmax goes on to allow for the possibility that this is just another in a long string of "coincidences."

Well, perhaps.

But at some point the Coincidence Defense becomes mathematically untenable. If you flip a coin and it keeps coming up heads, you eventually dismiss simple chance or coincidence as an explanation and begin exploring the possibility that you're dealing with a quarter that innately favors one side.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (10)
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AllahPundit brings me up to speed with all the good stuff-- including yet another pajama-patrol scoop, this time Wizbang figuring out that Burkett was claiming that George O. Conn passed him the documents.

That is, before he made up the name Lucy in Disguise with Times New Roman.

Meanwhile, Jonah Goldberg addresses a point I had wanted to address myself.

Think about it: Dan Rather ran this story on Bill Burkett's claim that George O. Conn provided him with the documents, but without actually ever confirming that with George O. Conn himself-- who is quite alive, even if he doesn't seem to want to come to the phone.

So-- a man with a history of nervous breakdowns and depression and who has a longstanding political and personal grudge against George W. Bush claims that another man passed him the docs, and CBS takes the word of the first man, ignoring the fact that the second man will not confirm Burkett's claims.

These are Dan Rather's self-styled "unimpeachable sources" -- a man of shaky credibility and mental health and another man who will not even talk to CBS? Unimpeachable sources?

As Inigo Montonya said: "You should stop using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Posted by: Ace at 09:27 AM | Comments (11)
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Baseball Crank has video of Marcia Kramer (of WCBS-TV in NY) interviewing Dan "Unimpeachable Source" Rather.

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 AM | Comments (1)
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USAToday reports:

In interviews in recent days with USA TODAY, both in person and on the phone, Burkett said he had merely been a conduit for the records purported to be from the private files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush's former Guard commanders, who died in 1984. Burkett admitted lying to USA TODAY about the source of the documents but said he did not fabricate the papers.

In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he made up the story about Conn's involvement to divert attention from himself and the woman he now says provided him with the documents. He told USA TODAY that he also lied to CBS.

Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.

When Burkett gave copies of the documents to USA TODAY, it was on the understanding that his identity would not be disclosed. USA TODAY honored that agreement until Burkett waived his confidentiality Monday.

Let's note straight off the bat that Burkett's word is worth about as much as CBS stock options. Whether or not "Lucy Ramirez" even exists, or, if she does exist, whether she had anything to do with these documents is not confirmed-- only Burkett's saying so.

Update-- What Is "Lucy Ramirez"?: RD Brewer thinks it's not so much a person as an anagram-- for "crazy rum lie."

Edited: I originally did a yahoo search and found someone in Texas with some Democratic connection called "Lucy Ramirez." I stated specifically that I had no idea if this was the Lucy Ramirez, and further noted that there are actually a lot of Lucy Ramierezes around.

However, as it seems more and more likely that "Lucy Ramirez" is just a crazy rum lie after all, there seems to me no point in even mentiong this Lucy Ramirez or that one. So I've deleted the reference to the Lucy Ramirez I stumbled across.

I shouldn't have even mentioned it at all, and I apologize for doing so.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (11)
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Everything about this story was worse than it seeemed, even if you thought it was all pretty shoddy to begin with.

And lest you say "Gee, he's an unhinged man with a now-admitted record of lying, why should we believe what he says about CBS any more than what he says about Bush?," bear in mind that Burkett made this claim in an interview with Dan Rather himself:

"Before I gave up any documents I wanted to know what you were going to do with them," Burkett told CBS anchorman Dan Rather. "And I insisted that they be authenticated."

Rather admitted that CBS had failed to heed their primary source's warning.

I'm a little suspicious of that Newsmax statement of Rather's "admission" -- why not just use the man's actual words? -- but it doesn't seem as if Rather argued the point with Burkett.

The source for the documents warned they might not be real, but Dan Rather put them on the air, and then defended them for two weeks anyway.

Posted by: Ace at 07:47 PM | Comments (16)
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As I said: The epitaph of this story will be, Everything was much worse than it seemed, even if you thought it was all pretty shoddy to begin with.

WASHINGTON — CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.

John Kerry aide Joe Lockhart, shown here in 1998, chatted with a former Texas National Guard officer, whose number CBS provided.

Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a female producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.

Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would help arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.

The network's effort to place Burkett in contact with a top Democratic official raises ethical questions about CBS' handling of material potentially damaging to the Republican president in the midst of an election. This "poses a real danger to the potential credibility of a news organization," said Aly Colón, a news ethicist at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Ahem. Give Ms. Colon credit for dry understatement.

...

CBS would not discuss the propriety of the network serving as a conduit between its partisan source, Burkett, and the Kerry campaign. “It was not part of any deal” with Burkett to obtain the documents, West said, declining to elaborate.

But Burkett said Monday that his contact with Lockhart was indeed part of an "understanding" with CBS. Burkett said his interest in contacting the campaign was to offer advice in responding to Republican criticisms about Kerry's Vietnam service. It had nothing to do with the documents, he said.

More at the link.

Posted by: Ace at 06:04 PM | Comments (15)
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Random Birkel reports that Tony Coehlo admitted on Hardball that the DNC had these documents previous to the CBS report, but they, ahem, told CBS the documents looked fake, presumably, ahem, trying to warn CBS not to go with the story.

Ummm... right.

Random Birkel now says Coehlo was talking about the Gore campaign knowing about these charges.

Sorry for the gaffe.

Posted by: Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (6)
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