Rand Simberg has the scoop on another CBS stonewall! CBS Stands By Imperial Wardrobe Claims.

NEW YORK (APUPI) In the face of rising, even overwhelming skepticism, Dan Rather and CBS News refuse to back down from his blockbuster story that the Emperor wore a new set of clothes in last week’s parade. His network remains one of the last holdouts from the growing consensus that his Highness was, in fact, ambulating down the street completely naked.

“We choose to believe the numerous eyewitnesses who saw the Emperor’s new clothes before they changed their story,” explained a CBS spokeswoman.

The imbroglio started last week when Sixty Minutes did a hard-hitting piece on the latest imperial fashion, with extensive footage of the Emperor as he strode down the street, waving to his subjects. Shortly after the piece aired (though NPR, pointing to a plot on the part of the nudity lobby, and being unable to distinguish between time zones, claims that it actually occurred prior to airtime), a small boy put up a post at the anti-imperial Free Republic website claiming that the Emperor was actually not wearing any clothes at all.

“I’ve been examining the footage of the parade,” he wrote, “and if you look carefully, you’ll see that almost every square inch of his skin is exposed. It looks to me as though he’s not even wearing any underwear, either boxers or briefs. I think that in a couple shots you can actually see his doodle.”

It was apparently a thought that hadn’t occurred to anyone else, at least at first, and this post didn’t receive much attention initially, but a few people started emailing it to some bloggers, who on the next day noted the potential sartorial discrepancy and invited comments from their readership. As others went back to reexamine the CBS footage, the web sites started to become deluged by emails from fashion experts all over the country.

Heated arguments took place on line, with sites like The Daily Kos arguing that the clothes were simply so fine that that they just appeared to be transparent. One commenter at that site named “Joe the Fashion Guy,” who claimed to have worked with famous Parisian designer Foofoo LaDerriere, pointed out that it was quite common for celebrities’ clothes to present the illusion of nudity. Subsequent investigation, however, determined that he was simply a night watchman in the LA Fashion District.