CBS Memogate

The CBS Memogate controversy, which focused like a laser beam on a central question of whether a memo which called into question President Bush's National Guard service record was a forgery, continues today with the posting of the report of the Thornburgh and Boccardi investigation.

Many in the Blogoshphere seem happy that the report is done and that it does present a lot of evidence that CBS messed up. Others are calling the report a whitewash. There is a good summary in the Weekly Standard, referred to by Powerline. Hugh Hewitt observes that now that the spotlight is on the blogosphere, bloggers are being a good bit more cautious in criticizing the report.

But the main point many who are critical raise is that the report did not come to any conclusion about the central question of whether the document was forged. This is made clear by the statement of Mary Mapes, perhaps the chief figure in the whole controversy, who after her firing stated "It is noteworthy the panel did not conclude that these documents are false"

This does seem rather incredible. From what I could see, the report does present a lot of evidence that the documents could not be authentic, yet it fails to draw any conclusion.

Michelle Malkin has a lot of information and analysis and ratherbiased.com has, as one would expect, a good summary. Advocacy journalism got off easy, in my opinion.