The truth about those mysterious memos may still come out. Court discovery procedures are like mental equivalents of rectal exams. And in the process, incriminating e-mails always manage to get leaked. (Just ask Microsoft.) So I would not relish being a boss at CBS News right about now:

[F]ar from resolving the problem of the network’s credibility, the independent report commissioned by CBS appears instead to be leading to a confrontation, with defenders of both the ousted CBS staffers involved in the debacle and top CBS management asserting two different truths from the same document.

Mr. Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers—his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West—haven’t resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network [...] correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name.

[A]ll three remain CBS employees and collect weekly salaries from the company that asked them to tender their resignations.

[...]

Legally, CBS and the ousted staffers are in an unusual stalemate: The network cannot be sued for breach of contract unless it actually fires them. Theoretically, the network could refuse to offer an apology or correct statements and simply drag its feet, continuing to write paychecks to the trio until their contracts expire.

[...]

On its own, CBS management has little motivation to publicly revisit the details of the Thornburgh report—let alone admit any errors in its own interpretation, which assigned little or no blame to Mr. Moonves, CBS News president Andrew Heyward and CBS executive vice president of communications Gil Schwartz.

There are also questions remaining about the way the report itself was assembled. No one at CBS has taken credit for determining the format of the investigation, which excluded recording devices or transcripts of interviews with the 66 people who were involved in the segment. No written record exists of Mr. Howard, Ms. Murphy, Ms. West or Ms. Mapes telling their side of the story to the investigative panel. None were allowed to take notes or voluntarily speak under oath.

In a recent article in The New York Law Journal, James C. Goodale, the former vice chairman of The New York Times, called the CBS investigation “a flawed report. It should not be swallowed hook, line and sinker.”

He added: “Surprisingly, the report is unable to conclude whether the documents are forgeries or not. If the documents are not forgeries, why is the panel writing the report?”

Good point.