Brian Ross at ABC does some of that icky work stuff and discovers that Captain Dan and the CBS team had been told the documents were fake, but went ahead with the story anyway. He does that by digging up the document examiners that CBS hired and ignored when they didn't provide the desired results:
"I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story,"Indeed! Howard Kurtz had a similar story at the WaPo.
Meanwhile, yesterday was day two of the Kitty Kelly slimefest on The Today Show and she also had a gig with Chris Matthews. I didn't see either, but here's a first hand account:
Those who watched Matt Lauer's interview of Kitty Kelley over the last two mornings on The Today Show, or read our threads about them, know that his tone and approach were surprisingly hostile.I can't get anyone to go on the record saying that Kitty used to do a donkey act in a Tijuana "nightspot". That must show how powerful she is!
On tonight's Hardball, Chris Matthews tone was more polite. But he had obviously done more homework than Lauer, and ultimately was even more effective than Matt in nailing Kelley as a mongerer of unsubstantiated rumors.
...
He first forced Kelley to admit that a former Guard member, last name Rogers, whom she quoted to speculate that W might have been taking drugs in Guard, not only didn't know W, but had never met him. She ultimately admitted that Rogers' comments were pure speculation.
Matthews then got Kelley to admit that a Peck Young, who made allegations about W having had an affair with a prostitute while he was married, had no knowledge of W's private life, that Peck Young is a Democrat activist, and that she was unable to ever talk with the alleged prostitute.
Matthews then mentioned that Kelley had alleged that: "some people felt that W has been protected by a coterie of former CIA men who prevented his past from seeping out."
Matthews: "What are your sources for that?"
"That is an informed opinion of the author based on more than 1,000 interviews."
Matthews: "But you cite no sources, only suggesting that people 'felt' that way."
Matthews then referred to the allegation in the book that Laura was "the go-to girl for dime bags of marijuana at SMU, and sold dope."
Matthews: "How do you know she sold dope? Do you have one first-person account from anyone who said 'I was there, I smoked with her, I bought from her?"
Kelley: "I spoke with various people who were unwilling to go on record."
Matthews: "There is a pattern in your book. The people who are willing to go on the record have no first-hand knowledge. And the alleged first-hand sources are all unnamed."
Matthews then asked the most telling question to which he got a devastating admission: "Could you get *anyone* to come forward to say on the record that any of the Bush family broke the law?"
Kelley, abjectly: "No."
Matthews: "It's stunning that you couldn't get one person to go on the record."
Kelley pathetically tried to turn this fatal weakness into a strength: "What you said just demonstrates the power of this family."
I guess when the chips are down even the mainstream media gets a tad squeamish about outright balderdash.
