Rather UK?

Could we be looking at an international version of Memogate?

Could be.

Ed (via LGF) points us to this piece regarding the Downing Street Memos that have had the left so exercised. Emphasis is added:

The eight memos — all labeled "secret" or "confidential" — were first obtained by British reporter Michael Smith, who has written about them in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.

The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.

The debate, even among the mainstream media's natural detractors, is interesting: Rocketman isn't putting too much stock in the story as another case of Rathergate-like fraud (the memos don't exactly swing for the fence) - but Ed makes the point that if Michael Smith burned the originals, there is no way to know if the story is fully legit or not.

Of course, there's a legitimate question - did Smith return the memos, or did he destroy them?

Either way - do you suppose the mainstream media (to say nothing of the leftyblog echochamber) would have given the story this kind of a pass had a conservative outlet come forth with unsupported, re-typed versions of documents with no originals available?

Posted by Mitch at June 20, 2005 07:42 AM | TrackBack