For those of you who missed the weekend Rathergate stories in the major papers, there’s the Saturday Los Angeles Times. “In the Rush for a Scoop,CBS Found Trouble Fast: Its report on Bush’s Guard service offers a cautionary tale in an age of growing competition.”
There’a also the Sunday Washington Post. “In Rush to Air, CBS Quashed Memo Worries.” It’s fascinating when reporters give the media a real closeup as they make sausage.
The print edition of the Post featured a full page display of side-by-side comparisons of known memos from Killian and CBS’s forgeries. And they’ve placed the large graphic online.
My favorite part is how Dan Bartlett failing to challenge the authenticity of the documents caused CBS to get even sloppier with its facts. (Notice Bartlett called CBS to get IN to the story, even though CBS protests they were going to get around to calling Bartlett. Uh huh.) Was Bartlett just harried, or was this genius jiujitsu? Let them think they have story, watch it go up in smoke.