Check Outside Your Window

It is quite possible that you will see Pigs flying: Judge Crater is correct in his criticism of my post yesterday.  That is not to say that his analogy was appropriate but that his main point is on target:

Using "it has been reported" as a pretext to slander people and to engage in self-serving speculation is a not uncommonly used smear tactic.

First, in order to mitigate the difficulty in admitting error, let me offer all my rationalizations (aka excuses):

I was very pressed for time.

The story was Believable.*

As to the first point, that is a vocational hazard for any Blogger and few of us would accept it as exculpatory.  As for the second point, the fact that a story fit into my pre-existing impression of the President (*confirmation bias) should have been a warning signal to be more, rather than less, careful.

During the Bush administration when all sorts of unsubstantiated charges, often using anonymous sourcing, was presented as fact by those who opposed his policies or his politics, the Right leaning blogosphere correctly lambasted them for resorting to such tactics.  George W. Bush was variously depicted as an out of control "dry drunk", a slave to his Oedipal revenge fantasies (hence the War in Iraq), a draft dodger, and a Narcissist.

In just the same way Barack Obama has been depicted as a secret Muslim, an anti-Colonialist, a Socialist, and a Narcissist. 

As with the attacks on Bush, those who are predisposed to think the worst of a person are much more likely to accept such unsourced stories as, perhaps not literally true, then, to borrow from the Bush Air National Guard scandal, a reflection of a greater Truth.  This is a mistake when done by those with whom I disagree and just as much a mistake when done by me.

Since I do not employ multiple layers of editors and fact checkers I must rely on the wisdom  and vigilance of my readers to keep me alert to my own excesses.  For that reason, it is always a good idea for any blogger to have readers who disagree with him; they are far more likely to point out errors of judgement or fact than those who agree with one's point of view.

Tomorrow, back to my usual blogging when I will, with any luck, irritate and perhaps horrify the Judge once again, by pointing out the follies of the Statists in the Political Industrial Complex.