But no, neither Dan Rather of his bosses at the network seem willing to make that apology. Instead they are stubbornly sticking to the line that the substance of the accusation has not been challenged and their unstated leap of logic is that it must then be true.

It is a truly astounding position. The issue surrounding Mr. Bush's National Guard service has been driven by the man they asked to supply them with documents, the same man who admits he lied to them, and the same man who is working diligently for Mr. Bush's opponent in the election. With the questionable integrity of the documents and of the source of the allegations in disrepute, surely the whole story - from top to bottom - must be questioned.

As the story unfolded yesterday, light was shed on an even more disturbing matter. There are now allegations a CBS researcher may have arranged for the source of the documents to contact a key adviser to Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry.

CBS can continue to live with this giant pink elephant sitting in front of Mr. Rather on the anchor desk each night, or it can do something to chase it away - apologize to Mr. Bush, or start firing people. The longer they wait, the less likely the elephant will respond favourably to the apology.

A selection of today's media coverage of memogate:
The Arizona Republic
Kerry adviser spoke with CBS document source - CNN.com
New York Post
Tim Goodman - San Francisco Chronicle