Following up from this short post, it's worth looking at Glenn Greenwald's response to Jeffrey Rosen's latest attempt to weasel out of responsibility for the disgraceful gossip-mongering piece he wrote for The New Republic, in which he sought to smear Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor using a passel of anonymous sources.
Believe it or not, Jeffrey Rosen, there is no "just blogging" excuse. That the wingnutosphere is filled with cranks who report rumors and fantasies as fact does not change this, since this habit is not limited to that domain (cf. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, et al). Responsible bloggers are the same as responsible journalists who publish in any other medium. Man up, and own your work. If you want to apologize, that's fine, but accept the responsibility of your own actions.
Note to TNR editor Franklin Foer: this goes for you, too.
(h/t: Eric Boehlert/County Fair)
[Added] Still more, as only Wonkette can bring it. A "Joe Lieberman Liberal." Heh.
Note that they called him on his shit long ago. (In Internet time, I mean.)
Just to be clear, in case you're wondering what the fuss is all about: In addition to Rosen writing an irresponsible smear piece, the thing that really grates is his claim that No One Could Have Predicted™ that every GOP mouthpiece in the country would use his blog post article as the basis of their own smears. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard some wingnut say, "Even the liberal New Republic says ..."
Short version: Rosen is a tool, and he should either admit he was in on it from the get-go, or he was too stupid to realize, despite being a DC insider for who knows how many decades now, exactly how this was all going to play out. He deserves endless scorn.
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