Just when you think that CBS black eye can't turn any more ugly, something like this turns up. USATODAY: CBS arranged for meeting with Lockhart

Well! CBS producer Mary Mapes called Joe Lockhart to ask him to call Bill Burkett. "She basically said there's a guy who is being helpful on the story who wants to talk to you," Lockhart said, adding that it was common knowledge that CBS was working on a story raising questions about Bush's Guard service. Mapes told him there were some records "that might move the story forward. She didn't tell me what they said."

Well, well, well.

Yahoo! News - Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer

Indeed, at CBS News the question is, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?" The New York Times: CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say

Headline on the Drudge Report: "CBS News Concludes It Was Misled on National Guard Memos, Network Officials Say."

Drudge goes on to say that "After days of expressing confidence about the documents used in a 60 MINUTES report that raised new questions about President Bush's National Guard service, CBS News officials have grave doubts about the authenticity of the material, network officials said last night, the NEW YORK TIMES is reporting in Monday runs. Developing... "

Dandy Don, clear your throat and get ready to sing.

One wonders whether the Kerry campaign will continue to let his family campaign for him after this gaffe down under.

A snippy Dan Rather returns to Dallas, and is captured for a comment by Fox News (hat tip: Johnny Dollar) 'Do You Feel Like You Were Duped?'

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Via Instapundit, this could be considered the "abridged" version of Unfit for Command. Admiral Roy Hoffman on the grand deception by John Kerry

This is a surprising outgrowth of Rathergate. I didn't hear Maloney's broadcast, although I live in the Seattle area. I wonder if Mary Mapes did? AP Wire | 09/18/2004 | Host Says Rather Criticism Got Him Fired

Does Robert Fisk earn a royalty every time the technique that bears his name hits the mark? Perhaps he develops a well deserved headache like this guy gets--and frankly, gives--from those annoying dot com loan commercials.

Antimedia at Media Lies fisks the LA Times here.

CBS continues to flail about, now repeating the tinfoil hat brigade's baseless claim that because "Buckhead" posted his guess that the now discredited Bush documents were in fact forgeries, and that the Republicans are somehow behind it all. CBS News: Bush Guard Docs Flap Marches On

I'd say that CBS' "story" resembles the plot of a Bugs Bunny cartoon except that I believe it would insult Bugs Bunny. Why, it's shocking, shocking I say to learn that REPUBLICANS post comments on REPUBLICAN WEBSITES. Oh, what a scandal!

CBS forgets to mention that experts it hired--but did not listen to--raised questions about the documents before the story aired. http://www.dailyrecycler.com/blog/2004/09/hey-hey-hey-goodbye.html

The invaluable Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs passes along the judgment of a former IBM Selectric Composer expert on the capability and facility of that machine for the task of producing the forged documents. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12694_Composer_Theory_in_Advanced_State_of_Decomposition

CBS' chief remaining "document expert", Mrs. Knox, said that she used an Olivetti machine. I'm still waiting for a news organization to establish the types of machines in use by the TexANG during that period and their capabilities. We can already guess that the answer won't make Dan Rather very happy.

William F. Buckley lays into Rathergate with his usual panache National Review's Buckley says Rathergate is much ado about nothing.

From Corante, we have a very good summary and timeline of the scandal that takes us up to today's insignificant document release and the interesting connection between Burkett, the DNC and Max Cleland.

A connection between Max Cleland, the DNC and retired Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, the most likely candidate to be named the source of the now discredited CBS documents, may exist according to the Washington Post Parallels Drawn Between CBS Memos, Texan's Postings

Another sign that the Navy is slowly beginning to confirm some of the Swifties claims about Kerry's records. Navy Contradicts Kerry on Release of Military Records -- 09/16/2004

Apparently we have a "new journalism"

The documents and CBS' own pathetic efforts to line up "experts" to defend their authenticity have been so thoroughly destroyed that they could be referred to in an imaginary headline as "CBS' offer of news division for MOAB testing deemed success". Now we are told, paraphrasing the report that Brit Hume just gave on Fox News' Special Report, that CBS has interviewed Killian's 81-year old former secretary, an admitted partisan for Kerry, and found that she, too, is willing to put words in the mouth of a man who died 20 years ago and say that while the documents are obvious forgeries, somehow the spirit of them is true.

Well, at least CBS has found an "expert" that it will put on the air to debunk the documents.

However, instead of drawing back to report on itself, and how it was mislead and why, CBS plows on. It takes the word of partisans who have been disavowed--the secretary by Killian's family and some of his fellow Guardsmen--and Barnes who has been outed by his deposition in a Texas Gtech trial and his own daughter. No admission that the family was right--as were the blogosphere and some of the MSM elements who saw through the forgeries.

The comparisons to CBS reporting on the "flawed" WMD intelligence and CBS' stonewalling on the forged documents are enough to make one double over with laughter. I love Scrappleface's headline quoting Tenet as telling Rather that the documents are a "slam dunk".

If this stonewalling continues--in the face of overwhelming fact and the founding tenets of journalism after the days of the "yellow sheets"--after the evening news and 60 Minutes II tonight, we'll have a new nickname for Dan: Richard Milhouse Rather.

Update: Instapundit found this excellent take on CBS' public statements on the scandal.

This is dynamite, as though Rathergate hasn't already had its share of earth shaking revalations about the sad state of "CBS News" Captain's Quarters: CBS ignores its own experts' cautions

The ingenuity of our soldiers is a thing to behold. Seriously, this is very, very funny, especially the song on page 8.

RatherBiased.com | News | CBS Asks Anti-Bush Group for Help With Story.

If this is true, it certainly adds to the evidence that CBS enjoys a close relationship with those who oppose the President RatherBiased.com | News | CBS Asks Anti-Bush Group for Help With Story.

Cirque du Kerry--la danse acrobatique Taking Kerry's Flip-Flops Seriously

I suspected as much. The comments on this post offer some very valuable insights as well. Froggy Ruminations: Doubling Special Ops?