"They really couldn't come out and yell that they were forgeries because it would make them look guilty "
Why is that? At any rate, they didn't have to yell. They could have just phoned up CBS and told them they were forgeries, and that they would expose them as such if CBS used them.
Politically if you deny a bogus charge you give more life to it. Let's say the Whtie House issued a press release saying that the docuements were forgeries. The main stream media would only report that they said they were forgeries...they wouldn't investigate or report any of the details of what MAKES them forgeries. To the general public it would look like the White House got caught with their pants down and are trying to deny it...or at least that's the spin the press would give it.
CBS is *never* going to run a favorable story on Bush, or at best it will be one favorable story to 100 negative stories. The White House wanted to get CBS as much as the dems...so they let us citizen reporters push the story and expose these documents for what they are fakes. The evidence is overwhelming that they're fake. Now the press has a choice....there a few million people on the 'net who KNOW they're fakes. So what can the press do? If you're FOX you report the truth. If you're CBS you keep your mouth shut. If you're NBC, you hedge your bets and say that the documents may be fake.