If you don't follow the left-wing moonbats or various media criticism Web sites you may have missed a May 13 story that "broke" on the left-wing Web site Truthout.org. The story claimed that Bush adviser Karl Rove had been indicted that Friday after his lawyers had a 15 hour meeting with special prosecuter Peter Fitzgerald.

The story ruined Saturday for a lot of Washington reporters as they rushed to verify the story.

Thankfully, the vast majority did go about verifying the story and it turned out it simply wasn't true. In fact, Fitzgerald had been in Chicago, not Washington, all day Friday and Rove's lawyers sadi that they didn't speak to Fitzgerald on Friday for 15 seconds, let alone 15 hours.

Well, after nearly a week of saying that the indictment had actually occurred, but it was under seal or the media was covering it up or ... whatever. Truthout yesterday issued a non-correction correction.

On Saturday afternoon, May 13, 2006, TruthOut ran a story titled, "Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators." The story stated in part that top Bush aide Karl Rove had earlier that day been indicted on the charges set forth in the story's title.

The time has now come, however, to issue a partial apology to our readership for this story. While we paid very careful attention to the sourcing on this story, we erred in getting too far out in front of the news-cycle. In moving as quickly as we did, we caused more confusion than clarity. And that was a disservice to our readership and we regret it.

As such, we will be taking the wait-and-see approach for the time being. We will keep you posted.

Marc Ash, Executive Director - t r u t h o u t
mailto:[email protected]

First, note that this non-correction correction has not been appended or linked to by the original story.

Second, this doesn't even live up to the standard of poor junior high school journalism.

They reported that Karl Rove had been indicted.

That was false.

They reported that Rove had told White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and others that he had been indicted.

That was false.

They reported a 15-hour Friday meeting between Fitzgerald and Rove's attorneys.

That was false.

And their "correction" is that they "erred in getting too far out in front of the news-cycle"?

Bolshevik Storytelling!

And these guys are the "reality-based community"?

In the spirit of Truthout: "Man lands on Mars!"

Of course, I may be a few decades ahead of the news cycle.

*UPDATE* Truthout has another update. It turns out Rove was indicted, but no one in the mainstream media has the sources that out-of-truth truthout has and they're just wimps who don't want to report the truth.

I'm also selling the Coronado Bay bridge on Ebay for those of you who are interested.