Hello Freepers I'm a new guy first post be gentle
My theory of what happened is that Burkett (Army NG Ret) created the memos out of whole cloth. You remember the 86 year old secretary Knox stated there were bogus Army Terms (billets) in the memos that contributed to her assessment of the documents being faked. He in turn gave them to Max Cleland who gave them to Mapes and was Gunga Dan’s unimpeachable source. In his most partisan moments I don’t see Dan Rather viewing Burkett as an unimpeachable source. Rathers trip to Texas was to convince Burkett to fall on his sword and take one for the team and hide the Mapes Cleland (Kerry) connection.
There's the mythic journalistic code that sources will not be paid for their stories. Yet, here's Mapes putting Lockhart in touch with Burkett (allegedly) in order to obtain the forgeries. Payment in any language. Then, Mr Rather in his "sorry" announcement pointedly and oddly said that CBS had approached Burkett, not the other way around. Another quid-pro-quo in order to get Burkett to appear on camera? Another payment. I haven't seen this payment angle cited in any MSM reporting, not that one should expect it.
> He in turn gave them to Max Cleland who gave them to
> Mapes and was Gunga Dan’s unimpeachable source.
I still contend that the "unimpeachable" referred to
misreading the White House response when CBS sent them
copies of the memos. The failure to "impeach" the memos
made them "unimpeachable" - it was seen as confirming
them (and by implication, the source).
Whether the "no comment" was a deliberate WH rope-a-dope,
or the WH, unlike CBS, merely wanted to look into them
before making a formal statement, it was the final fatal
after-dinner mint for the skewed scandal gluttons at CBS.
You could be "right on" in your assessment. Right now, everything is speculation.