I smell a rat (surprise).
Rather zooms off to Dallas, meets with Burkett.
They decide that Burkett should say HE was deceived by the person who gave him the docs, and that HE isn't going to say who it is, and he'll go to jail rather than reveal the source. Maybe as a bonus he says it's a mythical GOP operative who hoodwinked him.
Rather says "what can we do? we were deceived, it happens."
Rather "saves face" (in his twisted little mind), enough to survive at CBS until he retires. Burkett takes the heat (what does he care, and besides he may be getting DNC money to keep his mouth shut).
Short of a smoking gun proving what I believe is happening, only falling ratings (into the Grand Canyon) and intense outrage from affiliates and advertisers will take this guy off the air.
I hope buckhead can account for his whereabouts for the last several months.
Yes, a big fat Rather Rat, that's just what I suspected the moment I read the NY Times story! I can't imagine Burkett will be admitting criminal culpability to multiple felony counts on camera, so the only plausible scenarios at this point are,
(1) Burkett (perhaps with CBS urging him on) concocts another fairytale in which he received the documents in good faith from some mysterious intermediary, maybe a Karl Rove dirty trick (yeah, right!), or maybe some very private, secretive retired TANG officer who wishes to remain anonymous.
No one should fall for that of course, and if CBS hasn't already ripped Burkett a new orifice they'd better do so quickly -- but I worry that Burkett can just go to ground and wait it out until after the election.
(2) The other possibility I see is that Burkett tried to maintain his original story and the CBS execs had finally had enough, deciding to pitch him to the wolves. That would be the sensible thing, if CBS doesn't want to see CBS News ruined forever (wish it were already, but maybe the beast will refuse to die).
But it's much more likely that some version of (1) is going down now, and Burkett and CBS will continue to collude as long as they can. They will try to make it out to be Republican dirty tricks, or they will keep trying to re-direct the story to the content of the memos. Burkett will swear on a stack of bibles that he knows the memos to be accurate, but no one in their right mind would believe a word out of his vile mouth. That doesn't mean plenty of Democrats won't believe him, though.....
That sounds the most plausible to me. Rather admits he was deceived and implicates the "Republican dirty tricks machine."
What's Dans daughters link to all this....She ain't clean by no means in this matter .
Looks like what's in #36 is what's happening. CBS is saying they were deceived, Burkett is saying he god the docs from somewhere else, and it appears he (Burkett) is not going to say who the source is.
As Rush says, "The CYA is in progress."
This is disgusting, SOOOO predictable, and barring a miracle totally unprovable.