The Schiavo memo

Now, when CBS goofed on the Killian memo, it had an independent panel review its reporting; fired the producer and asked several others to resign; created a new position of senior vice president of standards; and created additional protocols for dealing with stories that come under significant challenge. (link).

Now, I really don’t expect anything like that from “citizen journalists”, of course. But the fact is, the people who accused the mainstream press of falling for a hoax were very wrong. Could we at least see a little introspection, a little humble pie, a little crow?

Apparently not.

Mickey Kaus, who should know better, claims that Washington Post reporter Mike Allen “doesn’t come off looking too good in this latest account.” Why? Because there were some inaccuracies in an early version of his story, distributed on the Washington Post’s wire service.

Errr … Allen asked for a correction as soon as he realized that story had gone out on the wire. My guess is the inaccuracies were introduced by an editor, not Allen. If Kaus wants to criticize the Washington Post, that’s one thing (I agree, and think the WP missed an opportunity to correct the record with a line or two at the end of today’s story), but singling out this reporter by name seems odd. Kaus admits only thing that was wrong with the version of Allen’s story that the WP published was the claim the memo was “distributed only to Republican senators.” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) got it by mistake.

(Kaus also claims the whole memo fuss was “wildly overdone,” but it’s worth noting Allen devoted just three paragraphs to it in his March 20 story … everyone would have forgotten about it by now had it not been for the bloggers claiming it was fake)

More to the point, Mickey — who really who doesn’t come off looking too good in this latest account? Who was much more right, and who was much more wrong? Isn’t there a larger lesson to be learned about putting your trust in sources who reflexively defend Republicans? (or any other political party, for that matter)

As Josh Marshall writes, “look at the evidence some folks walked into print with…”

Also, here’s a good roundup of what liberal bloggers are saying.