Killian documents controversy

The Killian documents controversy (also referred to as Memogate or Rathergate) involved six documents containing unsubstantiated critical allegations about President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. Dan Rather presented four of these documents 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 them. Several typewriter and typography experts soon concluded that they were forgeries. Proportional-print typewriters were in use in the early 1970s which could have produced the documents, such as the IBM Selectric typewriter, but no forensic examiners or typography experts have authenticated them and it may not be technically possible without the originals. Lt. Col. Bill Burkett provided the documents to CBS, but he claims to have burned the originals after faxing them copies.