No, that doesn't sound desperate and defensive at all, now does it?
Dan can dismiss it with the same epithets that were hurled at Drudge when he started cracking stories and injecting honest discussion of important issues into the MSM.
But epithets don't dismiss the very real fact that noteworthy challenges have been put to these documents and unless Rather can authenticate them, he and his show have been dealt a serious credibility blow.
Remember Clinton when confronted by Morris' polling: "we'll just have to win this thing, then."
This is Rather's "Monica moment." Conceding the docs were a fraud, assuming Drudge's account that Rather single-handedly pushed this story at CBS, dooms Rather. His only chance is toughing it out ala Clinton. "I have to get back to running the country" or in Rather's case "I have to get back to running CBS into the dustbin of history."