Rather: ‘I Believe They Are Authentic’
Oh, Danny boy. Still claiming the Killian memos were “authentic.” Man, that must be a heavy burden, to relentlessly cling to an obvious fiction in front of the whole world. Dialogue: Dan Rather.
The Hollywood Reporter: If this goes to court, in order for CBS to win they would be in the strange position of having to prove their own news story about President Bush and his National Guard service was false, will they not?
Dan Rather: It’s a very complicated case. Frankly, on that point, I’m just not sure. But the report was true.THR: The documents were authentic?
Rather: The documents were a part of the story. But the story was about what is known, and questions unanswered, about President Bush’s service, and what we reported was true. This lawsuit is directed at Viacom, CBS, its ownership and its management. It has two parts: A contract with me that they broke, and the second part has to deal with fraud and how they handled the story. Basically, (it’s) the undue influence of the corporatization and the politicization of news coverage, some of which I didn’t know was happening at the time. Some goes back to our breaking the story of Abu Ghraib.THR: But were the National Guard documents authentic?
Rather: I believe they are authentic. I believed it at the time, I believe it now.THR: So all the people who have pointed out, for example, that the particular font on the documents didn’t even exist back then, they are wrong?
Rather: I’m glad you asked about that because, unfortunately, there has been a lot written and said about it, saying they were bogus, they were forgeries, none of which has stood up. But I do want to come back to the documents being just part of the story. The core of the story — what a journalist tries to do — is get the truth, or as close to the truth as possible. We did that. Our story was true.
This calls for the Dreaded Throbbing Memo™©.
(Hat tip: Andrew.)
UPDATE at 11/25/07 6:02:23 pm: