I hope Gene Lyons is right, the main stream media has a lot to answer too. In a large part they are lazy and incompentent. It would be nice to see honesty, integrity and courage return to the jounalistic industry.

Something unusual happened recently in Washington: A crackpot, right-wing journal circulated a crude smear against two Democratic presidential candidates, and the mainstream news media quickly and thoroughly debunked it. It seemed a hopeful sign that professionalism may return to the national political press. But let’s not get carried away. Here’s what happened.