Keith Devens .com

The Bush Guard forgeries

Power Line has the definitive post on the Bush AWOL forgeries (though Little Green Footballs has had many good posts on the subject too -- one, two, three, four, five, and I should link to Reynolds' roundup as well, and Roger Simon's comments too (Update: and Matt Wretchard)).

However, the main reason I'm blogging about this is to highlight this quote at Power Line:

So what CBS is now saying is not that the documents are authentic, but that the opinions they express are authentic, based on the hearsay reports of anonymous persons alleged to be close associates of Col. Killian, who recall his views of thirty-two years ago. This is what passes for "authentication" in the mainstream media.

Ouch!

CBS has long been extremely anti-Bush. For instance, whenever one of the Bush smear books came out they got lots of air time on 60 Minutes. CBS deserves to have its ass reamed for this.

Update: The American Spectator has an article about this titled The Anatomy of a Forgery. It contains this note at the end, which is consistent with what I've heard elsewhere:

According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.

(Emphasis in original). Wackos. What's striking is that the memos seem to have originated in the Kerry/DNC camp. That's terrible. How stupid and wrong of them if they created the memos.

Update: Charles at Little Green Footballs continues to cover this in great detail. It's fascinating to watch Dan Rather's reaction to this. What kind of reporter/anchor who wants to at least present a veneer of objectivity would stick so stubbornly to such a loser of a story?