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CBS Puts Confidentail Unimpeachable Source in Contact with Top Democrat

In what many are calling a stunning development, news organizations are reporting that CBS put their key and confidential source, Bill Burkett, in contact with John Kerry Adviser, Joe Lockhart. This happened, of course, prior to CBS' insistence that it would not disclose Burkett's name.

CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.

Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.

[snip]

The White House said CBS' contact with Lockhart was inappropriate. "The fact that CBS News would coordinate with the most senior levels of Sen. Kerry's campaign to attack the president is a stunning and deeply troubling revelation," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director. [USA Today]

Posted by tim at September 21, 2004 1:53 PM

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