the Centrist

My liberal friend, let’s call him Pat, became incensed when I challenged the authenticity of the documents on the “60 Minutes”. This was the program which has caused a firestorm in its backlash against the CBS media giant and its anchor Dan Rather. The program championed the tired charges against Bush’s National Guard record. I merely stated to my friend that CBS’s documentation is obviously fraudulent. Moreover, I stated neither Bush nor Kerry’s actions of 30 years ago are as pertinent as their political accomplishments of late. We should be making decisions on Bush’s last four years as President and Kerry’s 20 year term in the Senate rather than their military records.

He agreed that while my argument was cogent there was a greater issue. That issue was the duty of a free press which has always maintained its historic neutrality in its protection of First Amendment Rights. Then, suddenly this otherwise calm leftist did his best imitation of the Howard Dean primal scream … as his blood pressure rose and mine simultaneously dropped, “Do you realize what this would mean? If CBS allowed obvious fraudulent documents on “60 Minutes”, they would have broken this trust. So who should I believe Bill, you or Dan Rather?” He spun and briskly walked away.

If my friend would have hung around, I would have explained that while the press has historically used its power to expose the wrongs and do what is best for our nation, our modern media is an exception. It has become self evident that today’s media falls well short of it’s vaunted historical neutrality. My friend has been blinded by his fear. He deeply feels that because the consequence of purposely misleading the public in a national election is so grave it cannot possibly be true. He argues that should the media become merely a propaganda tool of either political party our freedom is in jeopardy. He is correct and that is why the purposeful use of fraudulent documents supercedes the issue of the President’s National Guard Record.

Many have placed the blame of media bias at the foot of the modern era, … post modernism. We hear that the ‘times’ are different. Post modernism majors in political correctness and minors in facts and truth. It bends over backwards to be fair to the guilty, rather than protect the innocent. The definition of who and what are politically correct are in constant flux. Should one from the left do something previously considered improper it is excused by this ever changing value, should someone on the right fail to do what is perceived as politically correct he/she is chastised. For instance it was not proper to call a sitting President a liar under the last administration … although it could be clearly demonstrated that he lied … both on the record and under oath, as well as to the American Public … “I have not had sex …” All agreed that to call a sitting President a liar would irreparably damage the office, not the person.

Enter a guy named Bush who has not been shy about his faith. Bush’s public proclamation of faith places him squarely in the cross hairs of the post-modernist police. Thus, it follows that senior members from the Democratic Party have been allowed to fabricate stories (Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Terry McAlliffe, and Al Gore) and are free to call him a liar without evidence, chastisement, and or challenge from our former neutral press. At other times a President who had won two wars and had a strong faith in Christianity would be the substance of legends. Today we embrace only those who espouse the mantra of the politically correct: … ‘there is no God, there are only gods; there is no absolute, there are only exceptions; there is no evil, there are only mistakes’. So it is with that in mind that a heretofore respected journalist, Dan Rather, would dare to run forged documents on CBS’s highly regarded “60 Minutes”. He likely did it because he felt he should do all in his power to elect the man he ‘knows’ is right for America. Then, when plausible objections were raised, he virtually tells us that an investigation is not necessary, we should believe him … because he is Dan Rather. These contrived records in this tired accusation against Bush’s National Guard Record, may have finally overloaded that infamous camel … this may just be the last straw … you know … the one that breaks the camel’s back.

CBS erred grievously and likely illegally when they attacked this president with counterfeit documents. They have compounded that felony with a cover up. The immediate absorption of this ‘evidence’ by senior Democrats in co-ordinated news conferences across the country does not pass the ‘smell test’. Some of the evidence against these documents are:
1. One major sources is a democratic operative who has changed his story.
2. Neither the paper size or fonts on the documents were correct.
3. Retyping the documents on Microsoft Word with Times Roman Font (also not available at the date of the document) fits over the originals precisely.
4. The officer to whom these documents were addressed as the immediate superior was retired at the date on the document.
5. The signatures on the documents are in question.
6. CBS’s ‘star witness’ said he never saw the documents in question.
7. The jargon used in the memos is not and was not ever used in the Armed Services.

‘We the people’ expect truth, not spin from our media . As Rather scurries to cover up this obvious crime, perhaps we should remind him of his own words in the Nixon era: ‘the cover up becomes the crime’.