Check out this quote from a recent Los Angeles Times article:

L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq, left without even giving a final speech to the country — almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year.

Obviously, the second part of that quote is a bit of editorializing. But we’ll ignore the fact that the statement came in a “news” story and not an opinion piece. The greater transgression is the fact that the report is dead wrong. Bremer did deliver a farewell speech, and it was apparently quite well-received by at least some Iraqis.

In all fairness to the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post screwed up the story as well.

Napoleon once said, “Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.” It’s good advice for the conspiratorially-minded. But in the case of the traditional media, why does it always seem that the supposed incompetence carries with it a specific political message?