The Corner

Presidential Forgeries

The apparently forged documents on CBS remind me a bit of the JFK forgeries that went on the market a few years back — the guy behind the scam was trying to use ABC News and our friend Seymour Hersh to vouch for their authenticity (an thereby increase their value). Hersh had wanted to accept them (for a TV documentary he was trying to produce), but ABC News subjected them to detailed scrutiny and eventually said no. The lesson here: If documents embarrassing to the Kennedys turn up, the media will engage in due diligence; but if it’s Bush, anything goes.

John J. Miller, the national correspondent for National Review and host of its Great Books podcast, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.
Exit mobile version