CBS's defense of their 60 Minutes story continues to fall apart piece by piece. It's kind of funny watching them circle the wagons and offer their lame one-sided explanations. This is the type of reaction the media usually screams about if it comes from the government or a large corporation.

I was unable to do much blogging over the last few days, so here is a summary of the latest information on "Rathergate" (from oldest to newest) over that time period:

• The credibility of Ben Barnes has been torn to shreds. He was the main focus of the 60 Minutes interview saying he used political connections to help President Bush get in the Air National Guard. Now his own daughter has come out and said that her father is lying. She says that her father told her in 2000 that he had nothing to do with Bush getting in the Guard and that he is only saying it now because he wants to make money on a book and help get Kerry in the White House. The RNC has a fact sheet on Ben Barnes here. Here is some of the information listed that CBS was apparently not concerned about:
  
  * Barnes has raised over $100,000 for the Kerry campaign
  * Barnes is personal friend of Senator Kerry, they have known each other since the 1980's
  * Barnes would likely be offered a job in a Kerry administration
  
  These are the types of connections that CBS would probably point to as a defense for not airing the Swift Boat Vets yet CBS sees no problem when the connections are among Democrats.
  
  
• Retired Maj. General Hodges, who CBS quoted in their 60 Minutes episode, now says that CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. Hodges says that CBS told him the documents were "handwritten" and he was only read them over the phone. After hearing what they contained, he told CBS "well if he wrote them that's what he felt". Another words he just assumed they were accurate because he thought they were in Killian's handwriting. Now that he has seen copies of the documents, he thinks they have been "computer generated" and are a "fraud". CBS considered Hodges to be their trump card in this controversy because he is a Bush supporter.
  
  
• Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt, who according to the memos was putting pressure on Killian to "sugarcoat" Bush's review, had retired a year and a half before the date on the memo. CBS knew this but chose to use the memos anyway.
  
  
• The Washington Times reports that a handwriting expert thinks the signatures on CBS's memos do not match Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian's signature found on other official documents. This directly contradicts CBS's expert from Friday night.
  
  
• Marcel B. Matley, the handwriting expert used by CBS on Friday night, says he only judged one of the memos to be authentic, not all four as Dan Rather implied on Friday night. CBS claims they have two other experts that authenticated the memos but they refuse to produce their names. Matley also said in another interview that 60 Minutes had asked him not to give any more interviews.
  
  
• Robert Strong, who was also quoted in CBS's Friday night report, now says he is skeptical that Lt. Col. Killian would have been working on a Selectrics Composer typewriter.
  
  
• On Sunday, the Boston Globe had an article with the headline "Authenticity backed on Bush documents". Only one problem, the expert they quoted in the story says the Globe misrepresented his statements. Patterico notes that this is a pattern at the Globe. The Globe issued a retraction today (Wednesday) although if you click on the story it still has the same headline and there is no mention of the retraction! At least pajama bloggers correct the original post when we make a mistake!
  
  
• One of the pioneers of electronic typesetting, who is no fan of President Bush, says the memos are forgeries.
  
  
• Gerald Richards, a former FBI document authentication expert, said "It is highly probable that (the original memos) were computer-generated," and "it is highly probable that they were not generated by a typewriter vintage circa 1972."
  
  
• Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's secretary says she did not type the documents and if anyone had typed them it would have been her. She says the documents are fake but reflect opinions that were in real documents that no longer exist. She does not like the President and called him "unfit for office" and "selected, not elected." during the interview.
  
  
• Two Document Analysts state that CBS ignored their concerns about the memo and ran the story anyway. CBS still claims it has other experts but has not produced their names. See Patterico's post for a good take on this.
  
  
• Bob Schieffer, host of the CBS show Face the Nation distanced himself from Dan Rather saying "I think we have to find some way to show our viewers they are not forgeries," and "I don't know how we're going to do that without violating the confidentiality of sources." Bob Schieffer is scheduled to be the moderator of one of the presidential debates and National Review says he should be replaced if CBS doesn't own up to this mess.

All in all CBS and Dan Rather have managed to make themselves look like the Nixon White House, repeatedly stonewalling with "evidence" that falls apart as soon as the Blogs can get their teeth in it.

It's kind of ironic watching CBS learn what it is like to be on the other end of Investigative Reporting and a media frenzy!