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[Tyrone Slothrop]

This e-mail to Sullivan is the single best thing I've read about the Killian memos/CBS fuss, a story I've given up on trying to sort out:

• "I got a good laugh from your post on the "factual superiority of the blogosphere" because I did learn a lot of facts from blogs about the "CBS memos".
  From the right-wing blogs, I learned that the memo font matches MS Times-Roman, and nothing else. From the left-wings blogs, I learned that the memo font matches IBM Press-Roman, and nothing else.
  From the right-wing blogs, I learned that small horizontal variation in spacing is proof of "kerning" and therefore computer generation. From the left-wing blogs, I learned that small vertical variation in alignment is proof of mechanical action and therefore typewriter creation.
  I learned that the right-wing facts are certainly true, as noted by Washington Post experts, and the left-wing facts are certainly true, as established by the Boston Globe.
  From the right-wing blogs, I learned that a trusted expert is one who writes to Glenn Reynolds, offering to withhold any opinion on any topic if only the good Professor will end the stream of right-wing e-mail abuse. This guy's pleading uncertainty proves to Mickey Kaus and a waiting world that the Globe is full of crap.
  From the left-wing blogs, I learned that a trusted expert is a long-time Kevin Drum poster who suddenly reveals (without evidence) that he was an IBM typewriter salesman and therefore has knowledge that apparently belongs to no other living human. This guy's self-proclaimed certainty proves to Dailykos and a waiting world that the Washington Post is full of crap.
  From all blogs, I learned that the low resolution of the documents nullifies all supposed "facts" that contradict any locally favored facts.
  From all my reading, I learned the comforting fact that we can all choose our facts as we please and yet still go to bed at night sure that all of our facts have survived the rigorous scrutiny that only the blogosphere can provide."