Did CBS and Rather Get Typeface Font all Over Their Disingenuous Faces? by Kerry L Marsala (9/16/04)

Why what took place over thirty years ago has become the battleground for John Kerry and his campaign camp seems rather null and void to me. But Kerry has insisted he must bloviate at any given moment that he served (four months) in Vietnam. One would think if you ask a former president, Bill Clinton who won two terms, for advice and the advice given was to stop stumping on "I served in Vietnam" you would quit. Not John F. Kerry though, he just continues to ooze from his purple hearts. Hence, since this is the platform Kerry has decided to run his platoon or "Swift boat" by, we now have what appears to be forged documents surfacing against our current president, bubbling up from the depths of liberal murky waters called- lies, lies, and more lies. Supposedly these credible documents bring forth questions over President Bush's service to his country, some thirty years ago. These documents are to be held quite suspiciously particularly when the typeface used didn't exist back then. CBS, Rather and Kerry campaigner's, it would seem collectively all of you are adrift, possibly even lost, on a Swift boat…somewhere in Cambodia perhaps? It would appear John Kerry that your very inept captain is Dan Rather and CBS- quick Kerry jump ship!

CBS and Mr. Rather need a good butt whippin for trying to break a lead story without establishing clearly the authenticity of the allegations made. Recently I was talking with Jack Yan, a resident of New Zealand, (publisher of Lucire Magazine, and a co-author of a book called Beyond Branding) about these questionable documents over our president's military service- thirty years ago. Mr. Yan is known to be a leading font developer in the Southern Hemisphere and his earlier typeface designs are sold here in the United States. Mr. Yan shared with me his knowledge over the integrity of the typeface design profession with no political bias or opinion for either candidate.

Dan Rather, of CBS, claims in his defense of the documents that the Times Roman typeface has been around since 1931. That is true, but the specific cut of the typeface used in the letters is post 1985. According to Mr. Yan, "Every time a font is recut for a different machine, experts are able to tell. Each laser printer, each digital file, has subtle differences." But, Dan Rather being the professional journalist he is certainly must know more about typeface…than all the leading font developers and computer script geeks in the world do.

Mr. Yan went on to state, "Specifically, the typeface in the letters appears to be Times Roman, as licensed by Linotype of Germany, after 1985. It is not Times New Roman as Mr. Rather claims (as 'New Times Roman' [sic]), which is different again-- that is very evident from the PDFs. (Hence in a lawsuit I worked on in 2001, the typeface was designed in 1954 but could only possibly have come off a Hewlett Packard LaserJet III post 1993). Despite reproduction, the proportions and sizes of the letters relative to each other remain the same and are identifiable to any true typographic expert." Now, I bet you won't hear this full explanation on CBS's 60 Minutes I, II, or any other number they want to throw out.

Can CBS find a typewriter hiding somewhere in a barn outside New York City that might be able to produce this exact typeface that Mr. Rather claims was bestowed upon these typewritten documents? Quite possibly they could, but the only typewriter that could of come close to resembling a Times typeface was an IBM Selectric and those letters don't have the Times cut Mr. Rather is defending. To further the point of the ease of telling forgery typed documents Mr. Yan stated, "Even to a layperson, the Selectric Golfball settings would seem looser (i.e. the type is not so close together)."

Still Mr. Rather claims that other documents from the White House have superscript. "Superscript letters," Mr. Yan shared, "on old typewriters were either (a) in the same size but raised or (b) were separate, selected letters in a cut that made them visually the same weight. The 60 Minutes documents have superscript letters that could only have been proportionally and mathematically reduced on a computer."

Finally according to Mr. Yan the defenders of these documents make "very fundamental errors, they can be argued against by any first-year design student studying typography. They also seem to be skewing the issue away from the typeface, which the one matter that effortlessly categorizes CBS documents as counterfeit."

Didn't the Kerry camp demand of President Bush to unequivocally denounce the 527 Swift boat ads? Why is it when the Swift boat Vets book was released multiple news organizations and ranting bobbled headed media puppets cried, "that’s not fair" and demanded the Bush administration to "denounce" the ads? Wasn't there even a call for investigating the ties between the Bush campaign and the Swift boat Vets? Don't the Swift boat Vets have free speech rights and the right to divulge what they deem the truth? Where is the media's cry for justice and full investigation into these forged documents? Where indeed is a call for journalistic honesty Dan Rather and CBS? Answer the American people CBS, Dan Rather, and the other Democrats sailing on the sea of lies. The double standards being played out by so many here is appalling. What happened to the news story over Sandy Berger being caught with files conveniently stuffed down his pants and tucked in his socks? The same thing that will happen with these forged documents- it will all be conveniently drowned and never fully exposed for what it is- lies. You know something? That all really stinks- badly. The media and their hyenas, so innocent and saintly, hushing up when we need to tell the truth.

Dan Rather and CBS these typos are on your face. You can't wipe away the facts or the ink. The imprint of truth has already become permanent. It's time to read the transcripts of the liberal media clearly, and expose their biases of, "anyone but Bush." The American people are tired of hearing what happened back then. We want to know what the candidates running are going to do today and tomorrow and we can't find out if forged documents are going to be the toy boat the liberals want to play with.