Ethics, Schmethics!

If this is true, Jason Leopold makes Jayson Blair look like Edward R. Murrow.

What a piece of garbage...

Meanwhile, Marc Ash did his best last week to keep hope alive:

Truthout of course published an article on May 13 which reported that Karl Rove had in fact already been indicted. Obviously there is a major contradiction between our version of the story and what was reported yesterday. As such, we are going to stand down on the Rove matter at this time. We defer instead to the nation's leading publications.

In that Mr. Luskin has chosen the commercial press as his oracle - and they have accepted - we call upon those publications to make known the contents of the communiqué which Luskin holds at the center of his assertions. Quoting only those snippets that Mr. Luskin chooses to characterize in his statements is not enough. If Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has chosen to exonerate Mr. Rove, let his words - in their entirety - be made public.

Reporter Jason Leopold

Mr. Leopold did not act alone in his reporting of this matter. His work, sources and conclusions were reviewed carefully at each step of the process. There is no indication that Mr. Leopold acted unethically.

Please keep in mind that over the years we have reported on many examples of individuals being scapegoated in crisis situations by superiors seeking cover from controversy. Truthout, however, does not do scapegoats. And we stand firmly behind Jason Leopold.

Truthout never struck me as an entity with much in the way of credibility, as it always seemed full of the same progressive conspiratorial adventures that one can more readily follow at a Democratic Underground or DailyKos...sort of a political version of the supermarket tabloids. Frankly, I never got the attraction.

Sort of ironic it all came down the same week that Dan Rather was set out to pasture.