Like Pulling Teeth

Update (12:18 p.m.):

Matt Drudge EXCLUSIVE // Mon Sep 20 2004 11:58:02 ET

STATEMENT FROM DAN RATHER:

Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question — and their source — vigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.

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.

But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.

Please know that nothing is more important to us than people’s trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully.

Rush Limbaugh pointed out that if CBS were really an innocent party in this mess, Dan Rather should be expressing anger about being duped, a missing element in this statement.

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According to the New York Times (registration req.), CBS finally admits it was “misled.” How gracious of CBS.

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 officials, who asked not to be identified, said CBS News would most likely make an announcement as early as today that it had been deceived about the documents’ origins. CBS News has already begun intensive reporting on where they came from, and people at the network said it was now possible that officials would open an internal inquiry into how it moved forward with the report. Officials say they are now beginning to believe the report was too flawed to have gone on the air.

But they cautioned that CBS News could still pull back from an announcement. Officials met last night with Dan Rather, the anchor who presented the report, to go over the information it had collected about the documents one last time before making a final decision. Mr. Rather was not available for comment late last night.

No one but a liberal would believe that Dan Rather didn’t at least suspect the memos were fakes. Frankly, I don’t buy it, but whatever. They had no choice but to concede something, so I guess this is the concession.

Journalism is dead. Long live journalism!

Update: See Power Line and Michelle Malkin.

The American Mind: USAToday remains unaccountable. Read Scrappleface’s post about Rather’s “resignation.”

More web info at Blogs for Bush.

Power Line links to Kurtz, who recaps the role of bloggers.