I saw the whole thing. Katie Couric asked Risen twice about the Times failing to discuss its internal decision-making on the story. But Risen spent five minutes vouching for the patriotism and public service of his anonymous sources, and denouncing how the moderate career people were cut out as the neocon radicals made foreign policy.
I do wish Couric and others would push harder on the anonymous-source question: how do we know these sources aren’t members of MoveOn.org? How do we know they aren’t die-hard Hillary Clinton fans, or long-time Bush haters? Just because they’re career government officials tells us nothing about their anonymous motivations.