In a post entitled Want to Hear What Katie Couric Said Yesterday? Don’t Read Portfolio, the Wall Street Journal‘s Peter Kafka points out that Portfolio media blogger Jeff Bercovici had to pull down a story obtained under Chatham House rules.

Some MediaMemo readers have asked me to reprint all of Bercovici’s story, but I don’t have access to it.

How could Kafka have accessed it? Type “cache:” before the dead url, and – lo and behold – this pops up:

Katie’s Little Helpers: How Couric Prepped for Palin

At Quadrangle’s Foursquare conference today, Portfolio’s own Matt Cooper interviewed Katie Couric, Brian Williams and George Stephanopoulos about covering the presidential campaign that was. Matt says he’s sworn to secrecy, and you know I wasn’t invited, but one person who was there says it was a lively discussion, with Williams teasing Couric about all the attention she got for her campaign-narrative-altering interviews of Sarah Palin.

Couric shed some light on her preparation for the interviews: Beforehand, she sought advice from former senator Sam Nunn and Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haas. They told her to draw Palin out on her geopolitical worldview and urged her to let the governor speak at length without interrupting her. Maybe she should bring them along with her when she takes over at Meet the Press?

Also at Foursquare, Portfolio editor in chief Joanne Lipman interviewed Tribune Co. chairman Sam Zell. Given his cautious speaking style, I’m sure there wasn’t much to report from that session.

Google search. It isn’t rocket science.