Following up on Meteor Blades' recommended diary, Lynch Mob, we should look beyond Fox News to other so-called "reputable" journalists who jumped on the "McCain volunteer attacked" story and promoted it as "fact" -- before the facts were in.
We can start with Jonathan Martin at Politico.
Martin reported this story as fact yesterday, offering this headline and first line:
It's getting ugly out there
A McCain staffer was assaulted last night in Pittsburgh.
Note that he did not use "allegedly attacked." He stated it as fact. Martin then cites Drudge as his source for this "fact":
Via Drudge:
Martin updates his story with the McCain response:
UPDATE: A McCain aide says that both the McCain and Palin have called the family of the victim.
Ignore the fact that Martin doesn't also UPDATE with the Obama camp response which came as quickly as the McCain response.
But it gets worse...
(more)
Today, when Martin reported on the hoax, he mentioned not a single word about his own false reporting from the day before.
In fact, he compounds his error by offering the following headline and first line for the piece:
When it rains it pours
Seems like McCain just can't catch a break.
"McCain can't catch a break?" That a young woman wasn't really beaten and mutilated by a big, strong black man? If she had, that would have constituted a "break" for McCain?
Who thinks like that?
Politico fancies itself as the online journalistic equivalent of a major newspaper, along the lines of the Post or the Times.
Shouldn't Jonathan Martin be held responsible for his egregious disregard of fundamental journalistic practices in this case, particularly on a story as potentially incendiary as this one?
If he had any credibility as a journalist, this event should certainly sink his ship.
Martin should apologize to his readers at the very least, and, barring that, should step down from his position at Politico. This should not be allowed to pass without Martin being held accountable for his journalistic malfeasance.
Drudge is a known hack who has continually published unsubstantiated allegations as fact. But there is no excuse for a so-called reputable journalist to further Drudge's slime in a publication (online or otherwise) that wants to be taken seriously as a journalistic, news-reporting enterprise.