Would that mean that Mapes told Lockhart about the memos before Joe made the call to Burkett?
Or, is Burkett saying he told Joe about the memos?
When did Joe first know about the memos?
Mapes had to have told Lockhart about the memos. He's not going to get on the phone for just anybody -- that was Burkett's early complaint in his Texas Democrat forum. Nobody would give him the time of day at the Kerry headquarters. Later, he said that he was talking to the upper echelon and was very excited about pending news before the broadcast.
Who would have told Mapes about Burkett? Ben Barnes? Robin Rather?
I'm thinking that Burkett--purportedly having seen the memos or something like them in the trashbin way back when--described what he saw to "someone." "Someone" asked a few questions about what they might look like, did a teensy bit of research (maybe even tweaking Burkett's "memory" of the nonexistent things), created them, and allowed Burkett to receive them. Burkett can't believe his luck--literally! So he insists that they be authenticated. CBS does its job of authenticating and the rest is history. "Someone" could be Mapes at Lockhardt's request or one of Kerry's band of (Army) VVAW brothers. Mapes knows whom to trust in Texas to make the delivery (Lucy R?) to Burkett and arranged to send them on to CBS. Some plausible deniability, some lying, some forging, some conspiracy, some dupes.