A Source Is A Source, Of Course, Of Course

Atrios is right on the money.

Josh Marshall has the gory details:

As noted, the Washington Post got burned today by a "senior Bush official" who told them that Gov. Blanco of Louisiana had never declared a state of emergency in the site -- a claim the Post printed as fact. Yet the claim was demonstrably false and by late afternoon the Post had been compelled to print a correction.

This week's Newsweek contains the same false claim -- and though their recital of the anecdote is unsourced, common sense suggests that someone or some operation fed them both the same line, which neither organization checked out before running.

Monday's Times, not surprisingly, confirms that the White House damage control operation is being run by Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett.

Why the hell are the gutless media letting themselves be pushed around by these fuckers? Have they, at long last, no pride at all? No dignity? Jesus, why not just wear kneepads 24/7 and have done with it? We're no longer talking mere politics, girls, we're talking about finger-pointing as the corpses from Dear Leader's feckless insouciance pile up.

This is why I don't feel at all sorry for Judy Miller, nor do I particularly care much for Mark Felt and his supporters. Anonymous sourcing ends up being much more trouble than it's worth. Sometimes matters of conscience require actual moments of courage, endangering your precious career in the service of your country. Tough shit, Hopalong.

But forget Miller and Felt for the moment. What do the Pravda peons have to gain from protecting this "senior Bush official"? Exactly nothing at this point. This an unpopular administration through and through, and it's only getting worse for them. The source -- since they lied, and that can be demonstrably proven -- deserves to be burned in the first place. What's the administration going to do if the Post gives up this lying sack of political shit -- not talk to the media anymore? Good luck with that; 90% of what they're doing these days is damage control. They can't cut off the main newspaper of the nation's capital, not without looking even worse than they do.

I don't know if the reporters are simply too stupid and cowardly to realize that they actually have some leverage (moral and political) in this situation, or if Pravda's corporate owners just won't let them perform due diligence in this instance.

Either way, it's simply unconscionable. This source lied through their teeth about Blanco, WaPo and Newsweek shamelessly regurgitated it without any follow-up, and there should be accountability across the board on this. This is fucking bullshit.