The major news in CBS anchorman Dan Rather’s defense of the alleged

Bush National Guard documents is the revelation that CBS News does not have

the original documents purportedly written by Bush’s commanding officer Lt.

Col. Jerry B. Killian. Rather reported tonight that the network’s document

consultant “believes they are real, but is concerned about exactly what is

being examined by some of the people now questioning the documents, because

deterioration occurs each time a document is reproduced, and the documents

being analyzed outside of CBS have been photocopied, faxed, scanned, and

downloaded, and are far removed from the documents CBS started with, which

were also photocopies.” That last clause is critical. Document experts say

it would be relatively easy to determine the authenticity of a typewritten

original; a typewriter makes a small indentation into the paper with each

strike, and those indentations can be studied in great detail. But a

photocopy is another thing. There’s no way to analyze the physical aspects

of the typewritten words, nor is there a way to analyze the actual

signature. In fact, an image of a legitimate signature could have been

placed onto a computer-generated document and then printed out and

photocopied. The news is that CBS based its report on photocopies, making

it difficult to determine whether or not the documents are in fact

authentic.