It doesn't instill a lot of confidence
Drudge is linking to a story this morning that is headlined "My Unwitting Role in the Rove 'Scoop'."For those of you not in the know, here is the backstory:
Several weeks ago, a website by the name of Truthout.org broke a story, scooping the MSM, that Karl Rove was about to be indicted in Plamegate. It got a lot of lefty panties wet, but the MSM never picked up the story. It wasn't clear why, but there were more than a few conspiracy theories about the Right-Wing Nature of the Press suppressing the story floating around out in the 'sphere.
Then, out comes the news that Rove will not be indicted. Truthout refuses to back down from the original story. Strange but true. Truthout has egg on it's proverbial face.
Fast forward to today's story. This article is written by a journalist by the name of Joe Lauria, who works freelance for a number of publications. It seems that he is unwittingly connected to the Truthout story. The details are very bizarre and I encourage you to read it.
The gist of it appears, however, that the author of the Truthout story committed fraud, perhaps identity theft, and at the very least trampled on the code of journalistic ethics to put out this story.
He gave his source the name of this other guy and a cell phone number that was one digit off of the other guy's. So the source can't now be sure who he spoke to. In any case, the liar is still standing by his story and claiming that some back-room deal was struck.
I can't be sure, but I have to say I don't think this sordid tale is over. I can also tell you I am not inclined to believe the ravings of a guy who factually obscured his own identity, portrayed himself as another journalist, and admits to doing anything for a story.
I wonder...is this to be be Jayson Blair and Dan Rather's journalistic legacy? A slew of "reporters" who make shit up in order to flush out another story, ethics be damned? If I did the equivalent of this in my job, the CFTC would come and put my butt in prison.
Judge for yourself.
