Everybody gets home free!!! Slightly ruffled, a bit tarnished, but it will play as, "Boy, are we embarrassed!"
Mr. Burkett, after talking with Cleland, gang-emailed a bunch of folks in a Yahoo group for democrats. Mysteriously, Mr. Burkett later received some documents via US Postal Service. No note, no return address. Based on what Mr. Burkett believed, and wanted to believe, the docs looked real enough!
He faxed them to CBS. Mapes called back and Burkett assures her they're real, just like the ones he saw in a trash can. Somebody must have salvaged some of Killian's paperwork and sent it to him.
So they go to press.
Rather comes on tonight and says, "Folks, we're sure embarrassed! Somebody sent Mr. Burkett real-enough-looking documents, and he sent them to us. We had experts tell us they were real and we went to press believing they were real. They now appear not to be real. We're sorry and we've taken steps to improve our verification processes. Even though we aspire to the highest standards of journalism, we're not perfect, we sometimes make mistakes. I assure you there was no intent to report any falsehoods. - Courage!"
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