RatherGate: The End?
I just wrote a rather crowing piece about the end of RatherGate: even CBS itself now states that the memos they put on air are likely fakes. Their excuses are just as ridiculous as their defenses have been:
Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point where-if I knew then what I know now-I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.
(Yeah, Dan. Like you really needed to talk to his secretary to start doubting the documents. You may have just gotten kicked in the ass, but my sympathy would be much more likely if you hadn't gotten in the gimp suit, put on the handcuffs, and bent over prior to the assault in question.)
But still, it would be more gentlemanly to sit back and watch the apologies roll in than to crow from the rooftops about having correctly perceived the obvious. The various members of the Wingnuts in Pajamas brigade deserve an apology, starting from Dan Rather and proceeding on down. It appears that even wingnuts get their stories right every now and then, especially if they're wearing Pajamas. Still, no news from the Daily Kos, publisher of one of the most absurd and offensive defenses of the documents to date.
Update: Fixed the Kos link so it points to... well, Kos.