Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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Today's report came with a wide variety of supporting documents, available in PDF form here.

There's an odd discrepancy between the transcript of Rather’s interview with Marcel Matley, September 10, 2004, and what actually appeared on the air that night.

The raw interview transcript is here. Note on page 4:

Rather: Thank you very much. Will you just hold on one second, if you will - just hold on.

Matley: Yes sir, I will.

Rather: Yvonne?

Matley: Yes.

Rather: Do this today. Are you surprised the questions came about these? We're not, but I wonder if you were surprised?

Matley: Oh, no, I knew going in. We're off the air right now, right?

Rather: Right, we're off the air.

Matley: I knew going in that this was dynamite one way or the other and I knew that potentially it was far more potential damage to me professionally than benefit to me. And I knew that. And uh, but we seek the truth. That's what we do. You know you're supposed to put yourself out to seek the truth and take what comes from it.

Rather: If you'd just hold on for one [interrupted]

Matley: That's what you guys do, that's what I do.

Rather: Well, uh, that is what we do and I appreciate you doing it once again. Yvonne?

Now look at the exchange on the CBS Evening News transcript , on page 2:

Rather: Matley finds the signatures to be some of the most compelling evidence. We talked to him again today by satellite.

Rather to Matley: Are you surprised the questions came about these? We're not, but I wonder if you were surprised?

Matley: I knew going in that this was dynamite one way or the other and I knew that potentially it was far more potential damage to me professionally than benefit to me. And I knew that. And uh, but we seek the truth. That's what we do. You know you're supposed to put yourself out to seek the truth and take what comes from it.

Rather broke a lot of rules in his reporting of this story, so this is small potatoes, but I wonder if Matley’s asking, “We're off the air right now, right?” indicates that he thinks his following comments are not for broadcast. Rather tells him that he's off-the-air - i.e., not broadcasting live - but his answer did appear on that evening's CBS Evening News.

Also note that later in the interview transcript, after some small talk, Rather says, “We were really impressed with you in particular with your patience. I am going to go - what I have here and there's no desire to lengthen this out, but it's obviously important that we have you reflect well on your work and so let me ask you and we'll begin recording again now.”

Another unused exchange, from the full interview transcript:

Rather: And, your analysis of the documents as a whole. You look at the handwriting and I asked you about the handwriting, but you look at the documents at a whole - tell us what your process was - how your analysis went?

Matley: Uh, looking at the documents as a whole, I called you and let you know that if we had to authenticate these documents from scratch, we couldn't do it. So, we had to assume that we had copies of authentic documents and then addressed the signature and we went on that basis.

Matley basically tells Rather he can't authenticate the document, and instead of that, CBS selects quotes that sound more supportive, as well as an arguably off-the-record comment about the importance of "seeking the truth."

What were the consequences to Rather again?

[Posted 01/10 05:46 PM]