Shades of Dan Rather

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs

Much debate has raged about the implications of the Downing Street memos.
Below is an excerpt from a Yahoo News article.

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.

Does this sound oddly familiar? It should. The circumstances are very similar to Dan Rather and Bush's National Guard Memos.

Procurement of The Documents The 60 MINUTES Wednesday broadcast reported that it obtained six documents from the personal files of Lt. Col. Killian, four of which were used in the broadcast. In accordance with longstanding journalistic ethics, CBS News is not prepared to reveal its confidential sources or the method by which 60 MINUTES Wednesday received the documents. CBS News? reporting determined that the source of the memos had access to the documents he provided and an
opportunity to obtain copies of them. Our sources included individuals who had first-hand knowledge of the events in question.

Again, the documents used for the 60 MINUTES Wednesday report were copies, and most of the analysis fueling the current controversy is based on scanned, downloaded, faxed or re-copied copies. For now, the disagreements among ?dueling experts? have not been resolved.

CBS News

Other anonymous sources, copies only, originals destroyed. Hmmmmm. The grand tradition of using anonymous sources goes on. Why would Smith destroy the originals?
Update:
The Captains Quarter has more.