The secretary who typed the document in the first place stated—in an interview on 60 Minutes a couple of weeks after the hatchet job on Dan Rather—that the document Rather had been given, and accepted in good faith on the assumption that CBS staff had researched and authenticated it as they customarily do with such documents, was not the original document that she typed. It was a copy. Rather, known for being dubious of the Bush administration, had been set up.

BUT—she also said that the contents of the document that Rather was given was accurate. It was what the Alabama Air National Guard general had dictated to her and it was what she had typed, even though Rather did not have the original document.

Among other things, Bush had been grounded because he failed to show up for a periodic physical exam required of all Air National Guard pilots.

I saw the show and I heard the woman say it. As did (according to the show's ratings) millions of other people.

Any attempts to whitewash Bush on this matter is pure puffery and excuse-making.   Bush was what military slang refers to as a "gold-brick."

Don Firth