PRESTOPUNDIT -- "It's a team sport, baby!"

"THIS REPORT [was based on] a preponderance of evidence, including documents that were provided by unimpeachable sources .. ".

-- CBS News, Sept. 10, 2004.

"The '60 Minutes' report was not based solely on the recovered documents, but on a preponderance of evidence including documents that were provided by what we considered to be solid sources .. ".

-- Dan Ra^ther, Sept. 10, 2004.

"We are confident about the chain of custody; we're confident in how we secured the documents."

-- CBS News, Sept. 14, 2004.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal:

before yesterday CBS never gave its viewers even a hint that its entire controversial story hinged on the word of someone who has made it one of his main goals in life to defeat Mr. Bush.

Michael Dobbs has much more on Bill Burkett and his use as a CBS News source.

UPDATE: This from the NY Times is simply stunning:

The Friday before Labor Day, Mr. Rather said yesterday, he heard that Ms. Mapes had the documents. He was in Florida covering Hurricane Frances, and flew to Texas. In the course of their conversations with Mr. Burkett, the team had grown increasingly confident in his story, he said. Mr. Rather said they had called his friends and neighbors to get a sense of his credibility and were satisfied.

"I knew him before by telephone,'' Mr. Rather said, "and otherwise had checked out what his reputation was in the community that he lived, and even people who disliked him and had arguments with him, including Republicans and supporters of Bush. They all said he's a truth teller."

Mr. Rather said that Mr. Burkett had initially refused to say who gave him the documents, and that CBS pressured him to do so. "We made it clear that the chain of possession was very important to us," Mr. Rather said. Mr. Rather recalled that Mr. Burkett had said he had gotten the documents from a former guard member who was now overseas.

Mr. Rather said producers had tried to get in touch with him, but could not. Knowing his identity bolstered the team's confidence just the same. "It was a person who could have had direct access to Killian's files," he said. "That made it believable."

More on Burkett from family members in his original New Mexico home town. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack