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From the report of the Independent Review Panel:

Mapes also told the Panel that before calling Lockhart, she discussed this request with Howard and that he approved the contact. Mapes said that Howard had reasoned that reporters exchange information from various sources and this request was not problematic. Howard, however, told the Panel a very different version of this conversation and said that he clearly informed Mapes that it would be inappropriate to intervene with Lockhart or anyone else associated with the Kerry campaign on Lieutenant Colonel Burkett’s behalf.

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Howard had developed concerns about the September 8 Segment on September 9, and acknowledged that the bloggers and other matters, such as the differences in the superscript “th” in the official Bush records as opposed to the Killian documents and the ABC News Nightline report that he found “credible,” had shaken his confidence.

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Thus, in an e-mail sent at 4:53 a.m. on September 10 to West, Howard proposed a media strategy that would acknowledge the possibility that 60 Minutes Wednesday had been the victim of a hoax:

    I wonder if it’s time for us to take the offensive and 
    say, look, we think we’re on solid ground, but we’re not 
    just sitting on our hands. We’re continuing to 
    investigate, and if we were the victims of an elaborate 
    hoax, no one would be more anxious to get to the bottom 
    of it than CBS News.

    A statement might say:

    'There have been allegations that the documents on which 
    we reported were either forgeries or re-creations. 
    Nothing we have learned over the past 48 hours leads us 
    to believe that. We remain enormously confident in
    the thoroughness and accuracy of our reporting.

    If indeed one or more of the documents is not authentic,  
    it would meanthat CBS News was the victim of an 
    elaborate hoax. We have no evidence that that was the 
    case. But we are continuing to aggressively investigate,
    and should we find that anyone - the Kerry campaign, the 
    Bush campaign, or anyone else – – was responsible for 
    circulating fraudulent documents and orchestrating a 
    hoax, no one would be more anxious to break that
    story than CBS News.'

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Later on September 10, Howard would again express concerns to West, Mapes and Heyward about the Segment after speaking with Peter Tytell, an individual with extensive typewriter experience. At that time, Howard’s concerns again were not acted upon and thereafter Howard did not have a major role in the Aftermath

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You go, Josh. Don't let them railroad you. You're probably a pinko, but not nearly as bad as those who held your leash.