The LA Times gets conned

Michelle Malkin ^ | 3/26/08 | Michelle Malkin

[LJayne]

Looks like all those superior layers and layers and layers of fact-checkers at the LA Times were sleep-deprived or something. Geez, Louise (hat tip: Patterico, who writes “This is very, very big. We’ll be hearing much more about this, you can count on that.”):

[Shermy]

Font issues!

“The Smoking Gun ( www.thesmokinggun.com ) said the documents seemed suspicious for multiple reasons, including the fact that they appeared to be written on a typewriter, rather than a computer,”

Story here:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0325081sabatino1.html

[Shermy]

Here’s the document

http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2008-03/36656729.pdf

[Buckhead]

TSG blows this thing sky high. Very thoroughly reported by TSG.

Pretty funny on the role reversal of computers and typewriters.

[txzman]

Another liberal dishrag gets wiped.

[Jo Nuvark]

My comment to the LA TIMES editor PING...

This event is the glaring result of ACTIVIST
JOURNALISM. If the story validates your world
view it “must” be true. I stopped believing your
fairy stories long ago. Your insular naivete
hurts people, our culture, civilization and
worst of all... you hurt America. You serially
and without conscience abuse the freedoms and
protections granted you by this great nation.
Shame on you. Like a bad friend, I cannot say
that I have been bettered for knowing you.

[rightinthemiddle]

Thanks, JN.

[bamahead]

The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger,

Careful! Dan Rather might get jealous :)

[TornadoAlley3]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0325081sabatino1.html

[nutmeg]

Wow, great comments to the LA Times! I sent a similar letter to the uber-liberal Hartford Courant when I cancelled my (nearly life-long) subscription, although I can't say my words were as eloquent as yours. ;-)

[Jo Nuvark]

The LA Times hasn’t posted my comment yet. We’ll see.

I’m hoping a new breed will see that College does not
train you to be a journalist. They indoctrinate you under
the guidance of “left” over, angry, white, emotionally
stunted, chemically stalled, prepubescent hippie professors.

It will be a new day when the ancient, fuzzy brained
academics are at last put out to pasture. Then we can
attempt to regain control of our educational system.

[CDHart]

You should say that to them, rather than just posting it here.

Carolyn

[Baynative]

"I’m hoping a new breed will see that College does not train you to be a journalist."

"J" school is the only curriculum that allows for lees aptitude and SAT qualifiers than Education.

It is the only major that will grant a degree simply for agreeing with and complimenting the professors.

[Cyber Liberty]

See? This is why we can't post LATimes stories here!

;^)

[Jo Nuvark]

[... “J” school is the only curriculum that allows for less aptitude and SAT qualifiers than Education. It is the only major that will grant a degree simply for agreeing with and complimenting the professors...]

I would love to hear someone say this to a journalist...
“I will answer your questions if you will answer mine.”

1. What was your SAT score and GPA?
2. Have you ever been arrested?
3. Have you ever used drugs, had an abortion, lied on a job applicaton, been divorced, cheated on your spouse, etc?
4. May I have your address and phone number?
5. What organizations are you a member?
6. May I see your tax returns?
7. Why is it OK for Katie Couric, Nancy Pelosi & the Clintons to make umpteen bisquillion dollars but it’s not OK for businesses like oil companies, Walmart and athletes to score the big bucks?

I believe that whatever is protected by the Constitution
must be held to a higher accountability. The Press has
somehow escaped accountability. Against such a thing,
there is no law.

Feel free to add.

[Jo Nuvark]

[... You should say that to them...]

I did. I just don’t know if they will post it on their website.

[RobRoy]

Story about rappers?

I could not care less whether it is true or false.

[mnehrling]

Feel free to add.

For most journalists, I want to go back to the basics. When would you use its versus it's?
Use each of the following correctly in a sentence: where, where're, there, their, and they're.
What is an unidiomatic expression. Is it proper to use an unidiomatic expression in professional writing?

[RandallFlagg]

Bookmarking

[sono]

Jayson Blair lives!

[Fundamentally Fair]

The con man, James Sabatino, 31, has long sought to insinuate himself, after the fact, in a series of important hip-hop events, from Shakur's shooting to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.. In fact, however, Sabatino was little more than a rap devotee, a wildly impulsive, overweight white kid from Florida whose own father once described him in a letter to a federal judge as "a disturbed young man who needed attention like a drug."

Sabitino (D) 08!

[Jo Nuvark]

Excellent questions.

We need to create journalist combat training seminars.

[Radix]

What was the story about?