The WaPo, at any rate, isn’t backing away just yet. Howard Kurtz writes in today’s issue (page A07):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12809-2004Sep10.html

The memos, described as having been written by Bush’s squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, indicate that Bush got special treatment as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard and failed to carry out a superior’s order to undergo a physical exam. Several experts consulted by news organizations say the memos contain typographical and formatting features that suggest they were written on a computer or word processor rather than on an early 1970s government typewriter.

Rather said that CBS’s lead expert was Marcel Matley of San Francisco, a member of the National Association of Document Examiners who has taught, lectured and written about his field, testified in numerous trials, and consulted for government agencies. Matley said last night that a “60 Minutes” executive had asked him not to give interviews.

The Dallas Morning News cast fresh doubt on the documents by reporting last night that the officer named in one memo as exerting pressure to “sugarcoat” Bush’s military record was discharged a year and a half before the memo was written. The paper cited a military record showing that Col. Walter “Buck” Staudt was honorably discharged on March 1, 1972, while the memo cited by CBS as showing that Staudt was interfering with evaluations of Bush was dated Aug. 18, 1973.

(…)

Some CBS employees, who asked not to be identified while questioning their bosses’ actions, expressed concern that the network had issued only a terse statement Thursday, when the authenticity of the documents was first questioned and until yesterday had refused to name any of the experts it had consulted or provide an on-the-record spokesman. One staff member, who has examined the documents but did not work on the “60 Minutes” piece, saw potential problems with them: “There’s a lot of sentiment that we should do an internal investigation.”

“The first rule of public relations is to get all the bad news out right away,” said Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University’s College of Communication. “It looks like CBS News has made some serious errors here, and if so, they should plead nolo contendere and not do the perp walk later.”

(…)

Matley, who told Rather last night that he knew the Bush documents would be professional “dynamite,” has been involved in high-profile cases, including a 1997 controversy over purported John F. Kennedy documents. After “60 Minutes” cast doubt on those documents, the man who unearthed them, Lawrence Cusack III, retained Matley in a suit against CBS that was rejected in court. Matley could not vouch for the documents’ authenticity.