Right-wing clamed hoax, a hoax in itself
(How republicans use ruse and subterfuge to fool the public)

by Jim Walker
10 September 2004
Recently on the Drudge Report, articles appeared that claimed the newly revealed documents about Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard might be a fake.

60 Minutes' Documents on Bush Might Be Fake, by Robert B. Bluey

and

Is It a Hoax? by Stephen F. Hayes

The articles (written for "CNSNews.com," and "the daily Standard", both right-wing online rags) claimed that the 32-year old documents produced by the CBS News program "60 Minutes" may have been forged using a current word processing program, according to typography "experts."

They claimed they were suspicious because the letters contained proportional fonts which they say was not common in the 1970s and that they used a superscript font found in today's Microsoft Word program. The superscript "th" appears in the header, "111th F.I.S.," gave these "experts" pause.

However, as one who has used an IBM Selectric II typewriter, I happen to know that they had superscript characters. These typewriters came with typeface balls that one could interchange with other font styles.

Moreover, other typed documents of the time that referred to Bush's service also contain the "th" superscript characters (click here to see one of them). These letters (released by the Bush White House) appeared long before these newly released documents. If those republicans feel skeptical about superscript characters appearing in the 70s, then why didn't they question these other letters? For consistency to their conspiracy theory, they would also have to accuse the White House of faking documents too. To make matters worse for the conspiracy theorists, there exists a typed memo by Bush for a request for transfer. At the bottom of the letter, there appears Jerry Killian's reply, typed by another typewriter in proportional spaced fonts with the same typefont as used in other Killian documents (click here to see the document). Look at the words "Recommend," and "Commander."

As for proportional spaced fonts, IBM announced their first proportional font Selectric typewriter in 1966, six years before the Bush letters got written.

In 1941 IBM introduced the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter, featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing, 31 years before the troublesome Bush letters were written.

IBM Executive typewriters (first introduced in 1947) also had proportionally-spaced characters along with superscript characters and were commonly used in the 70s.

Some have charged that the Executive and Composer typewriters would have been to large to use for common use. However, the photos below show them as typical sized typewriters:

In regards to curlycue apostrophes not existing on typewriters in the 70s, an IBM print advertisement for the IBM Exectuive typewriter show that curlycue apostrophes were used as early as 1953.

As for the typefont, it looks like a Times Roman font (or a very close variant). These kind of fonts have been available since 1931.

Furthermore, we have proof that the Air Force had IBM Selectric typewriters capable of producing letters like those used by the A.N.G. [click here].

To see the smoking-gun Bush letters yourself, dowload this pdf file: (BushRecord.pdf)

If those "experts" had consulted with any secretary that worked with IBM typewriters in the 70s (among the most commonly used typewriters of the time), they would immediately see that there "suspicions" would have been answered. Of course this throws suspicion on Bluey and Hayes and on the so called experts themselves.

Others have claimed that just because Microsoft Word can produce letters on a computer printer like those of Killian's that, somehow, that proves the case. However, modern word processors and typefonts got modeled from the old typeset and typewriter technologies, long before Microsoft existed. Producing documents that look similar proves nothing. But even here the computer printed documents don't precisely match those of Killian's memos. Click here to see why.

If you examine the letters, you will see that the characters do not line up exactly horizontally as you would expect with typical typewriters. A computer printer, however, outputs its characters precisely along the horizontal direction. The best evidence of all, of course, would come from examining the original letters themselves. A typewriter with metal characters striking an ink ribbon will leave dramatically different impact marks on paper than computer controlled printers (such as a laserwriter, or inkjet printer). Ink fade, ink smear and the type of ink would all give clear clues as to how the letters got typed. Moreover, the penned signature of Jerry B. Killian written over the text of his name would appear very difficult to forge considering that the text would have had to be magically forged underneath the signature!

If, indeed, those documents were forged, then the Bush White House must also be charged with forgery because their own released documents of Bush's Air National Guard also show superscript characters and proportionally spaced fonts. Forged documents by the White House would prove even more damaging than Bush's poor service record! So for those republicans who believe the documents are forged, you better hope they prove authentic.

Folks, these articles clearly appear as a right-wing ruse in order to throw suspicion on those who dare question George Bush's National Guard service. This subterfuge to avoid confronting Bush's embarrassing service record appears so transparent that anyone with a sense of curiosity and access to the internet could easily find that their claims are bogus. Unfortunately, most people do not research what they read in the news and the republicans know that dishonest propaganda works.

Matt Drudge, Robert B. Bluey, Stephen F. Hayes, CNSNews.com, the daily Standard, and other republican sources have blatantly lied to U.S. citizens, and I can't imagine anything more un-American. In early America (when the U.S. Constitution meant something) the citizens would have dragged liars like this into the streets and tarred-and-feathered them.

Addendum

Since this article got written, lots of news reporters, "experts" and skeptics have revised their thinking on the authenticity of the Bush memos. Now skeptics grudgingly acknowledge that typewriters in the 70s had proportional spaced fonts along with superscripts:

Further scrutiny lessens doubts on Bush memos Some skeptics now say IBM typewriter could have been used.

Opinion: Bush's Exam Doc -- Real or Fake?

Comparison This site provides a close-up examination of the CBS document compared with a Microsoft Word sample.

The republican ruse has backfired on them, and now they will have to defend their propaganda tactics.