But We've Got "Fact-Checkers" and "Media Critics"...

The MSM proves incapable of learning from its mistakes.

Now the Washington Post screws up and covers up.

Here's a snapshot from Powerline's Scott Johnson:

Kurtz himself noted that ABC's original online version of the talking points memo story was headlined "GOP Talking Points on Terri Schiavo." Kurtz failed to note that the Post's original story also stated that the memo had been "distributed only to Republican senators" (emphasis added). In fact, as Hinderaker noted last week, the New York Times's March 22 story on the memo reported: "As tensions festered among Republicans, Democratic aides passed out an unsigned one-page memorandum that they said had been distributed to Senate Republicans." So no Republican distributor or recipient of the memo has been identified by Allen or anyone else.

ALLEN'S CAREFULLY PHRASED backtracking on his story is a little hard to interpret. Is he denying that his story reported the memo was written by a Republican operative and distributed to Republican officeholders voting on the Schiavo legislation? If the memo wasn't "a Republican memo," why was it a story at all, let alone a page-one story?

From the facts we now know: The memo was distributed by Democratic aides to reporters; the fact that it was also distributed to some Republicans would hardly be newsworthy--although, in fact, we are aware of no Republicans who have seen it. But somehow, as noted, the document has been widely described as a "GOP talking points memo."

SO WHAT'S GOING ON? The answer is not hard to come by. Michelle Malkin has identified a number of newspapers that ran the Washington Post's story on the memo, but in a version
that (unlike the one that appeared in the Post itself) explicitly attributed the document to the Republican party's leadership. The key line from these stories is, "The one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, called the debate over Schiavo legislation 'a great political issue' that would appeal to the party's base . . . "

Weren't these the same clowns who used to admonish Republicans (and only Republicans) that the cover-up is worse than the crime?

Where's Howie the Boy Toady when you need him?