The Killian documents

The typographic objections appeared on internet forums within hours of the broadcast and were straightforward: proportional spacing, a superscript 'th' in ordinals, a typeface matching Times New Roman, and centred headers. Critics showed that retyping the memo in Microsoft Word with default settings produced a near-exact overlay. None of that is by itself conclusive — proportionally spaced office typewriters existed in 1972 — but it shifts the burden to the people asserting authenticity, and they had nothing to meet it with.

The provenance failed faster than the typography. The document examiners CBS had consulted said publicly that they had raised concerns and had not authenticated the memos; one said he had been cited as authenticating documents he had explicitly declined to authenticate. Killian's widow and son said he did not type and did not keep such files. Burkett's account changed.

CBS defended the segment for twelve days, then repudiated it on 20 September. Dan Rather said he would not have run the story knowing what he then knew; the news president said CBS could not prove the documents were authentic, which was the only acceptable standard.

The independent panel appointed by CBS and led by Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi reported in January 2005. Its finding is precise and worth preserving: the panel did not conclude the documents were forgeries, because it could not — with no originals, that determination cannot be made. It concluded that CBS had failed to authenticate them, had rushed the broadcast, and had defended it afterwards with a stridency unsupported by what the network knew. Four employees lost their jobs, including Mapes.