Text 2068, 90 rader
Skriven 2004-09-11 11:06:00 av FRANK SCHEIDT (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av ED CONNELL
Ärende: Documents
=================
-=> Quoting Ed Connell to Jeff Binkley <=-

 JB>  More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the
 JB> Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by
 JB> President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander,
 JB> the late Col. Jerry Killian.
 
 JB> The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military
 JB> officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both
 JB> senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.
 
 JB> "More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC
 JB> staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for
 JB> them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over
 JB> to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much.
 JB> When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their
 JB> authenticity."
 
 JB> The concerns arose from the sourcing. "It wasn't clear that our source
 JB> for the documents would have had access to them. Our person couldn't
 JB> confirm from what file, from what original source they came from."
 
 JB> The documents that CBS News used were not documents from any of Bush's
 JB> personnel files from his time in the National Guard. Rather, CBS News
 JB> stated that they were documents uncovered in the personnel files of
 JB> Killian. That would explain why the White House or the Pentagon had
 JB> never before released or even seen them.
 
 JB> According to a Kerry campaign source, there was little gossip about the
 JB> supposedly hot documents inside the office of the campaign on McPherson
 JB> Square. "Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or
 JB> trying to generate buzz on," says the staffer. "It wasn't like there
 JB> were small groups of people talking about this as a bombshell. I think
 JB> people here weren't sure what to make of it, because provenance of
 JB> these documents was uncertain."
 
 JB> A CBS producer, who initially tipped off The Prowler about the 60
 JB> Minutes story, says that despite seeking professional assurances that
 JB> the documents were legitimate, there was uncertainty even among the
 JB> group of producers and researchers working on the story.
 
 JB> "The problem was we had one set of documents from Bush's file that had
 JB> Killian calling Bush 'an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot.'
 JB> And someone who Killian said 'performed in an outstanding manner.' Then
 JB> you have these new documents and the tone and content are so
 JB> different."
 
 JB> The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when
 JB> the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not
 JB> match up with other documents available on the public record, but
 JB> producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to
 JB> push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the
 JB> producer, who works on a rival CBS News program.
 
 JB> Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on
 JB> 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign.
 JB> "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in
 JB> our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe
 JB> they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more
 JB> information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger
 JB> fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how
 JB> these documents could be forgeries."
 
 JB> ABC News' political unit held a conference call at 7:00 p.m. Thursday
 JB> evening to discuss the memo and its potential ramifications should the
 JB> documents turn out to be a forgery. That meeting took place around the
 JB> time that the deceased Killian's son made public statements questioning
 JB> the documents' authenticity.
 
 JB> According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the
 JB> Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a
 JB> smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were
 JB> duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the
 JB> opposition.

 EC> This afternoon I heard Killian's son tell Hanitty that both he and his
 EC> step-mother had told CBS that Killian had a high regard for Bush at
 EC> the time they were in the service together.  Guess CBS didn't consider
 EC> that to be relevant.

Why let mere facts spoil a very interesting story?  What kind of 
60 Minutes segment would *that* be:  "Showing George W. Bush 
performed his duty in the Texas Air National Guard ..."  
Dullsville!  (as they used to say) ...

... Adam to Eve "I'll wear the plants in this family."

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