Monday, June 26, 2006
Time To Haul Out Occam's Razor
Well, Jason Zengerle has finally admitted that the "e-mail" he attributed to Steve Gilliard, the very linchpin of his "case" alleging that Kos controlled the lefty blogosphere (I wish -- then we all might actually be able to coordinate our messages and our energy instead of frittering it away), was a fake. But he still refuses to reveal his source -- even though one of the things they teach you in Journalism 101 is that if a source gives you bad information, you are under no obligation to protect that source. In fact, you are obligated to nail that scumbag so he or she never tries that crap again. So we are left with two possibilities that I can see: 1) Zengerle is, against all common sense and ethics, protecting a source who gave him false information. 2) Zengerle made it all up. The evidence in favor of #1, besides Zengerle's own unsupported word, is the recent pattern and practice of Beltway journalists. They are so eager for "access" to the rich and powerful in DC's power elite that they will do anything to get it and maintain it. But I can't see that being part of the equation here. The people on the Townhouse e-mail list don't exactly have the ability to wine and dine Zengerle the way a DC power broker could. (Buy him a hamburger, maybe.) So it's not as if he's going to lose anything by dropping a dime on the guy or gal who screwed him. The evidence in favor of #2: TNR's, and Zengerle's, past history. TNR not only was the chief journalistic home of notorious serial liar Stephen Glass, but Zengerle was also apparently the guy who TNR had tasked to be Glass' fact-checker. Zengerle and the rest of the TNR staff, I seem to recall, escaped punishment for Glass' sins by using the Sergeant Schultz Defense: The idea that they were too stupid to breathe unassisted, much less suspect Glass' perfidy. But this faked e-mail incident suddenly brings that into question. So which is it to be, Door #1 or Door #2?
So now you know how I feel when month after month the checks from the International Jewish Conspiracy fail to arrive.
(Drinking Liberally in Phoenix meets on Thursday nights at My Florist Cafe at 5:30!)
: 6/26/2006 06:41:00 AM Hey, George Soros, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates' dad still haven't sent me those winning Powerball tickets they promised me. Dang them!
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