The Schiavo Memo -- A Mea Culpa, But Where's Theirs?

So it turns out a GOP Senator's staffer did in fact draft the now infamous Schiavo talking points memo. My apologies for alleging the Dems might have done it -- I would have been on stronger ground if I'd concluded Dan Rather had done it. And it should have been readily apparent the Dems didn't do it -- the memo actually made some sense at times.

Jokes aside, this doesn't get the Washington Post off the hook for its original reporting. As Powerline noted, the original Post story claimed that the memo originated with "party leaders" and was distributed to Republican senators. In fact, the only Senator to receive a copy of the memo was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who received a copy of the memo from GOP freshman Senator Mel Martinez, in whose office the memo originated. This is yet another point noted by Powerline, yet belittled by those critical of it for attacking the story.

Here's the funny part -- Mike Allen, the Post reporter who wrote the original piece, is now effectively doing the reporting legwork to make certain that what he alleged in the original report is correct. Isn't that supposed to be done before the story runs? As far as I know, it's reasonable and justified to challenge a journalist to prove what he's saying is true. It makes someone like Allen more careful with what he writes -- seperating the facts from the innuendo of what's reported. Some might bray about censorship, but if we're looking for accurate reporting, it behooves us to demand that a journalist can back up what he's saying. If he can't (hello, Jayson Blair), then he should be canned. If he can, the critics should admit they're wrong.

Here, critics like myself have to admit that we were wrong in drawing the conclusions that we did. But the Post and other news outlets who followed the story need to admit that their supposedly high standards failed as well -- they didn't run all the facts down to be able to write what they did. If Allen's original piece had simply noted that a GOP Senator had given the memo to a Democrat, he would have been fine. The story might have been less sensational, however.

In the end, those who are criticizing folks like Powerline are making me wonder -- should we stop challenging news stories and just rely on the high priests of journalism when they swear they're telling the truth?