6 degrees of TANG to GANNON

From Daily Kos:

Follow this timeline.

Now go forth and fill in the blanks. Because this story has more holes than Sonny Corleone midway through The Godfather.

The truth is out there and it's closer than we think. The fact that this story has died down is upsetting, since a collective short attention span is the greatest stumbling block we face. The initial firestorm all erupted over the span of 2 weeks. Here are some of the most revealing moments:

Sept. 8, 2004 - First CBS report on Killian memos. To protect a lady's honor, Southern Gentleman Burkett intimates that an officer named Conn gave him the TANG memos but Conn denies it. They report Dan Bartlett told John Roberts in the morning that "I have no reason to doubt their authenticity" so many times in the same way Roberts notes it in his book. Presumably this was the comment decided upon by he and Rove to make that day. Bartlett also says, "The memorandum in your possession shows that he spoke to the commander who made that order to talk about his personal situation and the fact that he is going to Alabama. So at every step of the way, President Bush was meeting his requirement. Granted permission to meet his requirement. And that's why President Bush was honorably discharged." Because Bartlett had used the forged copies to say that Bush fulfilled his TANG requirements, Roberts told his superiors, the memos are authenticated. Had Roberts been "played"? The trap, whoever forged the documents, was ready to close on Rather and destroy the potency of the TANG/AWOL issue.

September 8, 2004 - Within 18 minutes of the end of the TANG report, posts from "Buckhead" appear on FreeRepublic.com, saying he thinks something is phony. Within a few hours, Buckhead is putting forth forensic analyses of fonts and proportional spacing, claiming the memos are forged and actually word-processed. (help me find link on this)

September 9, 2004 - Media trumpets forgery claim, discrediting Rather and whole TANG issue.

September, 10 2004 - Jeff Gannon receives a "scoop" from unknown person that Mapes was the CBS producer responsible. BEFORE writing his own scoop, Gannon tells Sean Hannity about Mapes. Hannity: HANNITY: "Now, Jeff Gannon, who is a terrific Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for Talon News, actually shot me an e-mail today, and he's about to break a story in an exclusive about these CBS documents." HANNITY: "And apparently they're also, according to Jeff Gannon, the -- Talon News -- this woman, Mary Mapes, this Dallas producer, is under pressure for the [CBS] network, and now there's doubts about their authenticity has taken place." [The Sean Hannity Show, 9/10/04]

SNIP

Sept. 11, 2004 - Dallas Morning News reveals inclusion of Staudt in 1973 Killian is incorrect and proves it to be a forgery. This was one of the main tip-offs inserted presumably by Bartlett and Rove to expose the forgery.

Sept. 15, 2004 - Marian Knox, Killian's secretary, recounts errors in TANG forgeries for the Dallas Morning News, including the inclusion of the Staudt name in the forged "sugar-coat" memo of 1973 and the word "billets" instead of "barracks".

Sept. 17, 2004 - Another Gannon story on Mapes with supposed inside source at CBS: "Sooner of (sic) later something like this was going to happen. When you see how hard they've been working this National Guard story, you know they weren't going to come up empty-handed one way or another."

SNIP

Sept. 20, 2004 - CBS News retracts claim of authenticity for Killian memos. Burkett admits a fellow Guard officer did not give him documents and tells of Lucy and the Unknown Man giving him the memos.

Sept. 21, 2004 - NY Post reports rumors that Roger Stone got the forgeries to Burkett. He has no comment. MacCauliffe repeats the Stone charge and asks the White House and RNC what they know about Stone and the documents. Stone later denies allegation but never provides an alibi for where he was on March 3, 2004, the day the Unknown Man gave Bill Burkett the envelope with the TANG Forgeries inside.

Sept. 21, 2004 - USA Today article on both parties accusing the other of forging the memos.

SNIP

Sept. 23, 2004 - Gannon also went after Mapes in this 9/23 Talon News story--now scrubbed

Sept. 24 2004 - After lawsuit, White House releases 1971 document showing the TANG Killian memos could have had superscript type in 1972. Republicans had been attacking TANG forgeries because they had superscript "th" and by withholding this document they had let Rather twist in the wind. Lost in the whole uproar is the fact that Mrs. Knox verified that there were original memos that she typed (on a manual with only a primitive superscript capability) and someone must have forged the CBS copies.

Sept. 2004 - GOP House members, presumably getting call from White House, or seeing Stone rumor reports, DROP calls for a Wire Fraud investigation, as does the retiring William Safire. (could use a link on original story of GOP calling for Wire Fraud investigation)

Sept. 2004 - Media ignores Stone angle and trumpets the Fall of Dan Rather. No further mention of Stone at all.

The most important elements in all of this are these two facts: doubts were raised about the authenticity of TANG memos by Right Wing bloggers within 18 MINUTES of the CBS report. That's some pretty speedy detective work, Columbo. Second, Mrs. Knox - Killian's secretary - verified that she did type similar memos, implying that while the documents may have been forged, the sentiments expressed therein were TRUE. Aaaaand, after the CBS backlash, the White House released a 1971 document showing the TANG Killian memos could have had superscript type in 1972. So, someone in the White House knew all along that the disputed memos could have been typed by Knox AND that they could have appeared as they did, since they released similar looking documents mere days after the controversy erupted. I don't think I need to bring up the fact that the WH released the documents after emphatically stating on several prior occasions that they had released EVERYTHING they had already....

It's a near perfect crime, confusing the facts with sketchy details that derail and undermine the true argument: Dubya never actually met his National Guard requirements and then was rewarded with an early release from his duty.

The Right Wingers have already undermined the Fourth Estate's credibility by flogging the Rather/TANG story to death. I think the Lefty bloggers can flog a not-quite-dead-yet horse as well as the next partisan hack. So, get flogging! There's some smoke - let's start a fire.