while we are back on this subject, there is actually some movement.
rathergate apparently snagged a PHd Professor who appeared to fake some research to try and show the cbs memos were typed and not done on a computer.
this professor recreated a bush memo and published it in his report. he indicated (but didn't state) that the memo he recreated was typed on a typewriter with a font called "Typewriter". He then indicated that it had been typed on an IBM Selectric Composer Typewriter.
The Boston Globe was ready to use the evidence to run a story and Mary Mapes (producer of the fake CBS story) told a Dallas paper that the professors work was going to vindicate them.
Unfortunately, the professor left some very incriminating evidence in a public web folder called "supporting_documents". There were 2 previous drafts/revisions of the final image he used in his report. They were in this web folder and were in Photoshop format. The earliest image had much of the bush memo recreated, but there were several numbers and the superscript "th" missing. The second revision of the image had some numbers that appeared to have been floated in and the final revision had the "th" and all the numbers in there.
Also in his web folder was a screenshot of all the characters available in the font he claimed he used. When you look at the characters, you see why he left the numbers and the "th" out of the original PSD file. they simply don't match what is in the bush memo (not even close). it appears as if he floated the numebs and the "th" in from a completely differnt (and unidentified) font (i'm guessing times new roman).
after the bloggers surfaced this evidence, he quickly changed his report and stated in teh report that he didn't type the recreated memo, but he was just trying to show a font that existed back then. unfortunately, he still made the claim that the font was all the same font in the memo.
the bloggers called his boss in order to report academic fraud. when this happened, the good professor took his whol website down. he apparently told his boss that he was just involved in academic research and was concerned about the "partisan" bloggers attempts to stifle his academic freedom.
his boss told him to put the report back up and let it stand. the university would back his right to do research. the report went back up, but the "supporting_documents" folder was cleaned out (so much so that it broke the professors web version of his report). luckily the bloggers had grabbed everything in the folder before the professor purged it.
the university went to the press and tried to get what basically was a press release (talking about how mean the emails were that the professor was getting) published. unfortunately for the university, the best case scenario is that the professor did extremely shoddy work. first and foremost, he failed to publish his methodology. any academic research without a methodology (so people can verify) is worthless.
at worst, the professor was trying to shill for CBS and john kerry. bloggers were also able to discover that the professor had donated money to the john kerry campaign.
i've talked with the author of the first news piece about the incident (the one that basically complained about how mean the emails were) and he told me that he was definitely going to do a follow-up piece (he thinks it'll publish tomorrow). apparently he's been getting a bload of emails from academians who are not too happy with the quality of the professor's "research".
now, apparently, the professor is upset because his good standing with the academic community has been shot all to hell.
he's blaming the bloggers. he should be blaming himself.
(
links,
links and
more links)
-pheirce
p.s. i never published my research into the ibm selectric composer because i thought the matter was dead after dan rather admitted that they couldn't verify the docs. i've decided to go ahead and finish the research and get it out there.
edit: btw, i AM an i-net nerd and damn proud of it
Post edited by pheirce at 10/6/2004 5:19:04 AM---
"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good" --Hillary MarxClinton
"the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." -- John F. Kennedy
"I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him." -- John Kerry, Democratic Primary Debate, 5/03/03