You start blogging about fonts and this is what happens

Mark Simonson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqOz8-Sto1g

I wonder who they cast for Thomas Phinney?

Nick Shinn

PAUL GIAMETTI, I would hope.

Peiran Tan

This looks like The Newsroom’s Genoa (Season 2) just got a feature-length revival.

Craig Eliason

@Nick Shinn you beat me to it!

Chris Lozos

They will cast Adrian Monk as Thomas ;-P

Mark Simonson

Well, I'm going to see the movie today. It'll be interesting to find out whether they mention more than "bloggers".

Thomas Phinney

I've read the book it is based on, and have written a blog post. Just waiting to see the movie as well. Probably tomorrow.

The “analysis” of the memos in the book is simplistic with straw man arguments. There are many, many references to the rabid, right-wing extremist bloggers who weighed in against the memos—and that is the kind of language Mapes uses about them, over and over. Ad hominem attacks everywhere (but how dare anyone question whether her politics might have influenced her coverage).

Aside from the logical fallacies surrounding her tunnel vision on the memos, Mapes does make a convincing case that the main thrust of the story was accurate and well supported, and a bit of outside research says the same. So the central concern of the book, that questioning the memos should not have led to ignoring the story, seems valid.

Mark Simonson

After seeing the movie, I'd say it's not unlike how you describe the book. And those of us who wrote about it on forums at the time are just "bloggers" in the movie. Although I think they quoted someone at length at one point, reading off a website.

James Puckett

I wonder how many historians are angry that Typophile disappeared.

Mark Simonson

A lot of the discussion I remember happened here: http://typographica.org/on-typography/forensic-typography-and-the-2004-campaign/

Mark Simonson

Unfortunately, a lot of the links in that discussion have rotted away. A key one can still be found on the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20041010151012/http://www.typophile.com/forums/messages/30/48638.html?1095370337

Mark Simonson

Also, for what it's worth, I thought Redford did a pretty good Rather. I kind of forgot he was Redford while I was watching it. No pun intended, but a rather amazing performance.

Thomas Phinney

Thomas Phinney said:

The “analysis” of the memos in the book is simplistic with straw man arguments. 

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Specifically, Mapes’ logic boils down to: proportional spacing was available in some typewriters at the time, therefore criticizing the memos as forgeries based on their proportional spacing is partisan nonsense. This Ignores the fact that the particular spacing of the memos was not physically possible with typewriter-level technology of the period, which is why every typewriter anyone has identified from the period as a candidate, to date, has been specifically disproven.

Same thing with superscript: argues that because superscript existed on some typewriters, criticizing the particular superscript of the memos is wrong.

But the savvy critiques are not making the arguments she claims.

Chris Lozos

Kind of like blaming the ruler for the measurement.

joeclark

I do not understand this thread.

Mark Simonson

Do you mean you don't understand what we're talking about, or that you don't understand why we're talking about it?

Chris Lozos

Joe, look back a few years at the W Bush controversy over his military service and the "document" which indicated he was not truthful. Thomas Phinney, in his font scene investigator role, was hired to evaluate the validity of the document. Thomas can speak to this far better than my geezer memory.