Apology - See You And Raise You

Jason Zengerle from The New Republic responds to allegations that he "fabricated" an email attributed to Steve Gilliard. He apologizes quite handsomely for an error. The email did not, in fact come from Gilliard. Zengerle did not check with Gilliard before publishing the email but did (according to his explanation) verify with others.

Here's how the error happened: A source forwarded The New Republic three emails purportedly written by members of the "Townhouse" list–Glenn Greenwald, Mike Stark, and Steve Gilliard–expressing concern about the Armstrong-SEC story. The emails lacked timestamps and headers, so TNR checked the emails with two other sources who belonged to "Townhouse." Both of these sources vouched for the authenticity of all three emails (and two of the emails, Greenwald's and Stark's, are indisputably authentic). After returning to these two sources this weekend, TNR learned that when initially shown the three emails, both sources immediately recognized the 181-word Greenwald email and the 389-word Stark email; having determined that those two emails were authentic, the sources just assumed the 22-word Gilliard email was authentic, as well. We now know it wasn't. These were clearly honest mistakes on the parts of the second and third sources; and TNR has been unable to determine why the first source–who has not responded to messages–included this one piece of incorrect information along with the accurate information the source sent us. Therefore, I won't abide by Glenn Greenwald's demand to disclose the identities of these sources. If Greenwald thinks that makes me, as he's hyperventilated, "a new Stephen Glass," then he can take that up with my editor Frank Foer, who knows the identities of the sources and has reviewed all the relevant materials they provided

He got burned for it. He admits it and life goes on, right?

Well, not exactly. From this relatively minor error, there has been a lot of hyperventilating from the left. Zengerle goes right onto the offensive and immediately raises the stakes as well. Now the astrological underpinnings are into play in the battle.

Good thing we got us some ring girls. This is going to get bloody.

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Boston Globe Notices TNR/Kos Cage Match — Thursday, 6 July , 2006 @ 9:19 am