The Eye Of the Media BS-icane

Reason #take-a-number why the New York Times has sunk to the level of single-ply sandpaper bathroom tissue:

The mainstream media's newspaper of record admitted late Saturday that one of its reporters fabricated part of a news story on Hurricane Katrina relief.

Saying his paper "flunked" the test of basic journalistic fairness, New York Times public editor Byron Calame said Alessandra Stanley's September 5 report claiming that the Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera "nudged" an Air Force relief worker out of the way so he could film himself rescuing a Katrina victim had been made up out of whole cloth.

"Since Ms. Stanley based her comments on what she saw on the screen September 4, the videotape of that segment means everyone involved is looking at exactly the same evidence," Calame noted.

"My viewings of the videotape - at least a dozen times, including one time frame by frame - simply doesn't show me any 'nudge' of any Air Force rescuer by Mr. Rivera," the Times internal watchdog said, adding, "Ms. Stanley declined my invitation to watch the tape with me."

Does Mr. Calame speak for the "Grey Lady"? Apparently not:

Times editor Bill Keller, however, is still standing by Ms. Stanley's bogus report. He told Calame that she was "writing as a critic, with the license that title brings - [and] was within bounds in her judgment."

"Ms. Stanley's point was that Mr. Rivera was show-boating - that he was being pushy, if not literally pushing - and I think an impartial viewer of the footage will see it that way," Keller insisted.

Astonishingly, Calame pointed out the rather gaping flaw in that "argument":

"Ms. Stanley certainly would have been entitled to opine that Mr. Rivera's actions were showboating or pushy. But a 'nudge' is a fact, not an opinion. And even critics need to keep facts distinct from opinions."

Not at the Times, obviously. Paul Krugman makes that obvious all by himself.

You would think that Ms. Stanley would be headed for the unemployment line after such an ethical breach. At a media outlet that actually respected standards of professional journalism, she would be. As such, don't be surprised if it's Mr. Calame who gets the ax for having the temerity to not just not toe the party line, but publicly challenge it as well.

UPDATE 9/26: Michelle Malkin, for one, wouldn't be sorry to see Mr. Calame go.