Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Columbia Journalism Review on CBS and the forged documents.
The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has a [1]story by Corey Pein on
Rathergate that seems to leave out quite a lot that might seem
relevant to his argument.
CJR came under [2]early criticism for sticking its head in the sand
when the story was breaking, thus missing one of the biggest stories
of the year about the media and its coverage--what would seem to be
CJR's beat. Now CJR is dismissing those who got the story essentially
right.
Among the more amazing passages is its attempt to resurrect David
Hailey and his [3]discredited report. Kevin Aylward of Wizbang, who
first exposed David Hailey's report, has [4]comments on the new CJR
story, calling it "spectacularly inept." You can follow some of
Wizbang's other stories on Hailey's study by doing a search on their
site [5]here.
CJR tells us that the key to Rathergate is Haileygate:
In order to understand "Memogate," you need to understand
"Haileygate." David Hailey, a Ph.D. who teaches tech writing at
Utah State University -- not a professional document examiner, but
a former Army illustrator -- studied the CBS memos. His typographic
analysis found that, contrary to widespread assumptions, the
document may have been typed. (He points out, meanwhile, that
because the documents are typed does not necessarily mean they are
genuine.) Someone found a draft of his work on a publicly
accessible university Web site, and it wound up on a conservative
blog, Wizbang. The blog, citing "evidence" that it had
misinterpreted, called Hailey a "liar, fraud, and charlatan."
[Aylward says that Wizbang retracted the three quoted words-JL]
Soon Hailey's e-mail box was flooded. Anonymous callers demanded
his dismissal.
Hailey is more restrained in his comments than other document
examiners more widely quoted in the press. Of course, cautious
voices tend to be quieter than confident ones.
On Saturday morning, Oct. 2, I also [6]criticized the tone of many of
the criticisms of Hailey, a concern that seemed to contribute to an
almost immediate [7]change in tone in the [8]debate. Indeed, Hailey
said that his hostile emails "[9]ended abruptly on Saturday
afternoon," Oct. 2.
Unfortunately, Hailey himself ended up engaging in intemperate attacks
on Wizbang's site. Here is part of [10]Hailey's apology to Wizbang:
Instead, I produced an incoherent diatribe. I apologize to you and
your community for defacing your site with my postings.
Worse, I woke still drunk and wrote you a letter hoping to deceive
you. Actually, at that point I should have simply apologized. And
so now I apologize to you for attempting to deceive you.
My behavior was inexcusable. My only excuse is I had (am still
having) a complete emotional breakdown. I am still not in control
of my emotions. [Hailey authorized public posting of his
apology-JL]
While Hailey's earlier report was certainly appropriately temperate,
it was not (as CJR characterizes it) cautious. I agree with CJR that
Haileygate is indeed helpful for understanding Rathergate.
Understanding Haileygate is also important for understanding just how
deficient CJR's reporting is. My earlier analysis of the Hailey memo
is [11]here. Hailey asserts that he is [12]confident that the memos
were typed, but he has not been able to locate any typewriter that
could have done it, nor has he been able to identify a computer font
that could have done it. None of the computer font candidates he
suggests, including particularly his favored font, ITC American
Typewriter Condensed, comes even close to matching the forged memos.
Times New Roman in MS Word does.
References
1. http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/1/pein-blog.asp
2. http://www.thegantelope.com/archives/000213.html
3. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_10_00.shtml#1096716102
4. http://wizbangblog.com/archives/004698.php
5. http://wizbangblog.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=hailey
6. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_10_00.shtml#1096716102
7. http://pavelblov.journalspace.com/?entryid=39
8. http://wizbangblog.com/archives/003865.php
9. http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu/news/internationalnews/100805_hailey.html
10. http://wizbangblog.com/archives/004563.php
11. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_10_00.shtml#1096716102
12. http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu/news/internationalnews/100805_hailey.html
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