INDCJournal: Revisionism

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January 04, 2005

Revisionism

Posted by Bill

The Columbia Journalism Review, which bills itself as "America's Premiere Media Monitor," has published a piece by Assistant Editor Cory Pein that attacks the critics of the CBS National Guard story and attempts to muddy the water regarding the veracity of the clearly fraudulent documents. A few brief thoughts:

1. Merely the information in my interviews with Dr. Philip Bouffard essentially eliminates the possibility that a typewriter of that era created the font used on the CBS documents. As for Bouffard's credentials, he's considered probably the foremost expert on typewritten fonts and forgery in the United States, maintains an exhaustive private collection of vintage typewriter fonts and designed the standard computer database program used by forensic document examiners to analyze old fonts in order to detect fraud.

2. That's only one overlooked angle; from the failure to mention the host of other experts that declared the documents false (beyond Dr. Joseph Newcomer), to Pein's stunningly dishonest or inaccurate representation of the process involved in Charles Johnson's document overlay, the CJR piece is a case study in selectively researched journalism.

The omission and misrepresentation of facts can only lead one to conclude that Mr. Pein either suffers dissonance fueled by a deeply desired conclusion, was incompetent in his research for the piece, or is dishonest. I suspect a combination of the first two options.

The Columbia Journalism Review, no matter what its perceived ideological bent, represents Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, arguably the most prominent journalism school in the country. Without a published retraction and clarification, this article tarnishes the publication, and possibly the institution, with its inaccuracy and unfairness. Consider: Columbia is dedicated to teaching standards of professionalism and due diligence to young reporters, yet its publication staffed by professional journalists was largely mute during the biggest media scandal in memory and now attacks the process that questioned Rather with a professionally incompetent piece. Bothersome.

Others respond:

LGF
Ratherbiased
Wizbang
Roger Simon
Rathergate

UPDATE: Kevin Aylward links to an article by Mariah Blake that redeems the CJR a bit. It's a good piece, but the publication's muted response and eventual misrepresentation of the major "media watchdog" story of this generation is pretty damning for "America's premier media monitor�a watchdog of the press in all its forms."

Posted by Bill at January 4, 2005 09:18 AM | TrackBack (4)

Comments

But... But... they have editors! Hell, many of them ARE editors!

They must be right!

Posted by: Parker at January 4, 2005 10:27 AM

"The Columbia Journalism Review, no matter what its perceived ideological bent, represents Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, arguably the most prominent journalism school in the country."

Make that "formerly the most prominent journalism school..."

Posted by: MikeK at January 4, 2005 12:08 PM

I don't think this is ever going to go away. I've got a troll on my site who declared Bush's failure to serve honorably in the ANG is incontrovertable. When I asked why, if the proof is so evident, that CBS had to run with the forgeries he said it's because Americans (and me in particular) wouldn't be able to digest the truth in 30 second soundbytes.

Folks, you are looking at a new religion. No matter what facts are presented, this isn't going to go away. The lefties here feel that the truth is so evident that lying is perfectly ok.

Posted by: Sharp as a Marble at January 4, 2005 12:28 PM

Yeah, I know quite a few people from Missouri, Indiana and Medill, not to mention U of Texas and a host of others. But notice the sleight of word there, arguably the most "prominent," not the most respected, or the best, or the most factually accurate, but the most "prominent."

Posted by: Bryan S. at January 4, 2005 09:41 PM

A side note to this brouhaha but one I found amusing. Charles Johnson or Glenn Reynolds (can't remember which) linked to Corey Pein's resume, which included undergraduate work at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Does that name ring a bell? It should, because a recent student infamously tried to stop an Israeli bulldozer with her bare hands. Unsuccessfully, of course. Something tells me that Evergreen is not exactly a Stanford or University of Chicago.

Posted by: Tongue Boy at January 5, 2005 10:13 AM

Here is another response to Mr. Pein's version of events. An expert in typesetting and typography explains, again, the technical details that show the memos to be crude forgeries.

Memogate: the experts and the amateurs

Posted by: AMac at January 5, 2005 01:06 PM