Building A Blog Empire For Profit

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Building A Blog Empire For Profit In September 2004, CBS News aired a “60 Minutes II” special on President George Bush’s service in the Texas National Guard during the Vietnam War. One segment featured a memo allegedly written by the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.Building A Blog Empire For Profit

Immediately, the New Media launched an investigation that eventually forced three CBS executives to resign and led longtime anchor Dan Rather to retire. The key question was: Was the memo authentic?

CBS News claimed it was and cited handwriting and document experts. Within 24 hours, the New Media exposed serious problems. They proved the memo could not have been produced on any machine used by the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s.

Investigators focused on the proportional spacing and superscripted dates. They showed that no 1970s typewriter could create these features. The memo’s layout also differed from typical documents of that era. The New Media demonstrated that someone had produced it on a modern computer using Microsoft Word, then faxed or copied it repeatedly to make it appear old.

The evidence left little doubt: the memo was a fabrication, not a genuine document from the Texas National Guard.