"Citizen journalists"? Try partisan hacks

Aside from their sloppy speculation, the episode also revealed the cloud of arrogance that hangs around bloggers from the CBS Memogate crowd. Indeed, this week right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin, busy peddling another false story -- which claims that Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographers who captured blood-curdling images from Iraq had ties to terrorists -- demanded to know why Pulitzer judges hadn't met with bloggers to discuss their conspiracy theory before handing out their prestigious prize. Right-wing site Little Green Footballs thundered: "The media establishment puts their thumb in the eye of the blogosphere, awarding a Pulitzer Prize for photography to the Associated Press's anonymous and very possibly staged photographs of terrorists committing murder on Baghdad's Haifa Street" (emphasis added).

The only proof provided for the charge was a link to another right-wing Web site that asked supposedly probing questions about the circumstances of the photographs -- questions that were about as insightful as the ones originally posed about the Schiavo memo last week.

Even when proven to be categorically wrong, reckless bloggers don't flinch. Examining the rubble Wednesday night, after the Post published its story about Sen. Martinez, Power Line concluded, "This story serves as an object lesson in how the mainstream media can take a dopey, one-page memo by an unknown staffer and use it to discredit the entire Republican party." Only someone who is shameless, and spends weeks accusing both reporters and Democratic elected officials of being liars, could turn around and announce that a manufactured episode had served as "an object lesson in how the mainstream media" tries to discredit Republicans.

Power Line was hardly alone in its denial. "If this [Martinez] story is true, ABC News, the Washington Post, and virtually every news outlet that ran the infamous story should now publish a retraction," concluded blogger Josh Claybourn. Retraction? His is the same Web site that on March 26 rushed to post an online "exclusive," which consisted of bogus allegations leveled by anonymous Republicans staffers that an aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was behind the Schiavo memo. Claybourn's "extensive investigations" into the memo were riddled with errors and false accusations, yet when the story blew up in his face he demanded that ABC and the Post issue retractions.

These "citizen journalists" obviously aren't interested in documenting facts. They're ideological bullies masquerading as media critics who want the press to stay away from stories (and images) that they deem unacceptable. And the sooner the mainstream press understands that, and stops anxiously amplifying bloggers' conspiracy of the week, the better off it will be.

For proof of how irresponsible bloggers and their enablers in the conservative press can be, here's a list of Schiavo memo greatest hits:

"Talking Points Story Imploding?" Power Line headline, March 22.

"Cliff Kincaid, editor of [Accuracy in Media], said evidence suggests that the memo may have been manufactured as part of an effort to make Republicans look bad," Accuracy in Media, March 24.

"Apparently the explanation is [that the memo] was forged! The memo was made up by Democrat staffers," Rush Limbaugh, March 24.

"There is not a bit of evidence connecting the memo to any Republican, and, for all of the reasons we have repeatedly spelled out on this site, there are excellent reasons to believe it is a hoax perpetrated by still-unidentified Democrats," John Hinderaker, Power Line, March 26.

"I still believe the [mainstream media] has no basis for implying over and over again that the memo was distributed by Republicans," Michelle Malkin, March 28.

"But his [the Washington Post reporter's] stated reason for believing the memo is not a hoax -- 'senators had it on the floor' -- is laughable," Hinderaker, Weekly Standard, March 28.

"ABCNews.com still hasn't retracted its unsubstantiated characterization of the memo as 'GOP Talking Points,'" Malkin, March 30.

"So rather than an example of aggressive reporting, the [Schiavo] memo story turns out to be yet another instance of crude liberal bias, in this case against both Republicans and those who fought to have Schiavo's feeding tube restored," Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes, March 28.

"Closer examination by The American Spectator, talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, The Weekly Standard, and Accuracy in Media (AIM) indicates that the memo is a fraud -- a political dirty trick, if you will, specifically aimed at causing public revulsion at Republicans," Newsmax.com, March 31.

"The only basis for blaming Republicans was the unsubstantiated allegation that the memo was spread among Republican senators. Yet no senator stepped forward and said, 'Yes, I got that memo,'" Barnes, Weekly Standard, April 4.

And this from Power Line Wednesday night, just four hours before the Post debunked the whole charade: "Some already suspect that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick. The inability of Democratic staffers to speak accurately about the matter does nothing to dispel that suspicion."

Despite that dismal record, on Thursday bloggers showed very little appetite for self-reflection. In fact, scanning the blogs involved in the memo story, readers found few corrections or references to lessons learned.

According to Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit, which helped hype the story early on, the take-away from the episode was about the mainstream press and how it "will publish stuff without much in the way of authentication."

That's an art some bloggers have already perfected.

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