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The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate or Rathergate) involved six purported documents critical of U.S. President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard in 1972–73. Four of these documents〔Two entitled "Memo to File," one "Memorandum," and one "Memorandum for Record," see here () for pdf versions at the Washington Post website.〕 were presented as authentic in a ''60 Minutes II'' broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 Presidential Election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate the documents.〔: "Boccardi and Thornburgh found that Mapes had said the documents were authenticated, when in fact she had found only one expert to vouch for only one signature in the memo."〕 Subsequently, several typewriter and typography experts concluded the documents were blatant forgeries,〔Including Peter Tytell and Thomas Phinney, as well as a Joseph Newcomer, a man with 35 years of computer font technology experience. See: Last, Jonathan. (【引用サイトリンク】title=It's Worse Than You Thought ) ''The Weekly Standard'', January 11, 2005, and Cohen, Sandee. (Making Headlines, Not Setting Them ), creativepro.com, September 23, 2004.〕〔Also, Bill Flynn, "one of country's top authorities on document authentication." and document expert Sandra Ramsey Lines: "'I'm virtually certain these were computer generated,'" ''CBS News'', September 10, 2004〕 as have most media sources. No forensic document examiners or typography experts have authenticated the documents, and this may not be technically possible without the original documents.〔"Because the memos were copies, Matley said in a recent interview, "there's no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them." Kurtz, Howard, ''et al.'', ''The Washington Post'', September 18, 2004. Marcel Matley was one of the four document examiners originally retained by CBS to examine the Killian documents.〕 The purveyor of the documents, Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, claims to have burned the originals after faxing copies to CBS. CBS News producer Mary Mapes obtained the copied documents from Burkett, a former officer in the Texas Army National Guard, while pursuing a story about the George W. Bush military service controversy. The papers, purportedly made by Bush's commander, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, included criticisms of Bush's service in the Guard during the 1970s. In the ''60 Minutes'' segment, anchor Dan Rather stated: "We are told (documents ) were taken from Lieutenant Colonel Killian’s personal files"〔TB report, p. 137.〕 and incorrectly asserted that "the material" had been authenticated by experts retained by CBS.〔TB report, p. 137: "This statement was without factual support...It is without question, however, that Matley (expert referenced ) did not authenticate any of the documents in question."〕 The authenticity of the documents was challenged within hours on Internet forums and blogs, with questions initially focused on alleged anachronisms in the documents' typography. Content soon spread to the mass media. Although CBS and Rather defended the authenticity and usage of the documents for a two-week period, continued scrutiny from other news organizations and independent analysis of the documents obtained by ''USA Today'' and CBS raised questions about their validity and led to a public repudiation on September 20, 2004. Rather stated, "if I knew then what I know now – I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question," and CBS News President Andrew Heyward said, "Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report. We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."〔 Several months later, a CBS-appointed panel led by Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi criticized both the initial CBS news segment and CBS' "strident defense" during the aftermath. CBS fired producer Mary Mapes, several senior news executives were asked to resign, and CBS apologized to viewers. The panel did not specifically consider whether the documents were forgeries but concluded that the producers had failed to authenticate them and cited "substantial questions regarding the authenticity of the Killian documents." ==Background and timeline== The memos, allegedly written in 1972 and 1973, were obtained by CBS News producer Mary Mapes and freelance journalist Michael Smith, from Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, a former US Army National Guard officer.〔Burkett, Bill. (【引用サイトリンク】title=What do you say? ) archived copy from ''archive.org'' of story originally from ''onlinejournal.com'', March 19, 2003.〕 Mapes and Dan Rather, among many other journalists, had been investigating for several years the story of Bush's alleged failure to fulfill his obligations to the National Guard.〔See and 〕 Burkett had received publicity in 2000, after making and then retracting a claim that he had been transferred to Panama for refusing "to falsify personnel records of ()Governor Bush",〔Thornburgh-Boccardi report, p. 53.〕 and in February 2004, when he claimed to have knowledge of "scrubbing" of Bush's Texas Air National Guard records. Mapes was "by her own account (that ) many in the press considered Burkett an 'anti-Bush zealot,' his credibility in question." Mapes and Smith made contact with Burkett in late August, and on August 24 Burkett offered to meet with them to share the documents he possessed, and later told reporters from ''USA Today'' "that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign," a claim substantiated by emails between Smith and Mapes detailing Burkett's additional requests for help with negotiating a book deal, security, and financial compensation.〔Thornburgh-Boccardi report, pp. 60–62〕 During the last week of August, Mapes asked Josh Howard, her immediate superior at CBS, for permission to facilitate contact between Burkett and the Kerry campaign, and Howard and Mapes subsequently disputed whether such permission had been given.〔Thornburgh-Boccardi report, pp. 64–65〕 Two documents were provided by Burkett to Mapes on September 2 and four others on September 5, 2004. At that time, Burkett told Mapes that they were copies of originals that had been obtained from Killian's personal files via Chief Warrant Officer George Conn, another former member of the TexANG. Mapes informed Rather of the progress of the story, which was being targeted to air on September 8 along with footage of an interview with former Lieutenant Governor of Texas Ben Barnes, who would publicly state for the first time his opinion that Bush had received preferential treatment to get into the National Guard. Mapes had also been in contact with the Kerry campaign several times between late August and September 6, when she spoke with senior Kerry advisor Joe Lockhart regarding the progressing story. Lockhart subsequently stated he was "wary" of contact with Mapes at this stage, because if the story were true, his involvement might undermine its credibility, and if it were false, "he did not want to be associated with it."〔Thornburgh-Boccardi report, pp. 90–91〕 Lockhart called Burkett on September 6 at the number provided by Mapes, and both men stated they discussed Burkett's view of Kerry's Presidential campaign strategy, not the existence of the documents or the related story. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Killian documents controversy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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