Dan Rather's Big Gunfight

To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn't have too much to say...
"He's an outlaw loose and runnin'", came a whisper from each lip
"And he's here to do some business with the big iron on his hip,
big iron on his hip." --Marty Robbins

So tonight we got to watch Dan Rather fighting for his professional life, his news broadcast's professional reputation, and, perhaps, the entire credibility of his network and its corporation. This is the blogosphere, so we already know the issues, have already posted our opinions on them, already drawn our battle lines, and already have our marching orders, before the major player can even ride into town.

For the record, I posted over at One Hand Clapping that I thought the document PDF's on the CBS.com website were suspect. I'm an ex-book editor and proofreader with lots of experience with typewriters all the way back to the old Royal Standard Manual on which I first learned. The proportions of the type do not look right to my eye. But I am no expert judge, and I could be wrong.

So how did Dan do? Not bad, so far. His voice was noticeably hoarse, as if he'd been doing a lot of extra talking lately, some of it beyond a normal volume. If you have watched much of him, particularly in moments of national crisis, you already know he is actually a very tightly wired and emotional man. And if you have seen him sitting in his suspenders shooting the bull with Larry King in his suspenders, you can pretty well guess that his personal politics are strongly Democratic. So, unquestionably, in our overheated election, he has been catapulted into a showdown he can't back away from.

He did not waver. His main points are these: the primary issue is George Bush's service, or lack of it; the "evidence" circulating in the Blogosphere is tainted by repeated copying and not reliable; expert testimony supports the genuineness of the signatures and the casual informality of documentation in the Texas National Guard. The defense was credible, but not overwhelming, so I think the real gunfight is still to come.

Wasn't long before this story was relayed to Texas Red
But the outlaw didn't worry, men who tried before were dead
Twenty men had tried to take him, twenty men had made a slip,
Twenty one would be the ranger with the big iron on his hip,
big iron on his hip.

Rather tonight was not Edward R. Murrow evicerating Joe McCarthy. Who could be? Murrow's classic "fact...fact...fact.." is untoppable. But Murrow was a broadcaster of a slower era and had much more time than 24 hours to pull the facts together.

So what are the questions now? First, the weakest part of the defense was the insistence that Bush's record was primary, the documents secondary. Now that the issue has been raised, it cannot be brushed aside. Second, tonight Rather revealed that what CBS has are Xerox copies, not originals. So where are the originals? They would be definitive as to authenticity, at least in terms of keystrokes and paper. Can they be obtained through FOIA? Will CBS undertake it? Or anyone else? Third, will CBS offer to show its copies to other experts for analysis? Finally, will the source come forward and release the program from any pledge of confidentiality?

Now the morning passed so quickly, it was time for them to meet.
It was twenty past eleven when they stepped out in the street.
Folks were watchin' from their windows, everybody held their breath....

I've been through Agua Fria. It's a tiny little town with a big wide empty street.