Ann Coulter redux: How not to do journalism

It's not that I think I'm terribly observant. I mean, it's awfully simple to fault Ann Coulter for her sloppy journalism. It's not even that I think those who hear "the truth" in Coulter's writings ought to be sent back to high school, or at least be required to take a test in which they are asked to clearly identify black and white. Rather, it's because I think Coulter deserves to be called on the carpet (along with those on the opposite side of the spectrum who practice shoddy journalism) that I point you today to a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer's "Currents" section. Mark Bowden, coauthor of Blackhawk Down (originally a piece of outstanding journalism published by the Philadelphia Inquirer before being turned into a book), attempts to clear his name after Coulter printed factually incorrect statements regarding his statements on US involvement in Iraq.

As I noted above, such sloppy journalism is not the sole province of Coulter and the right. It is present, too much so nowadays, on the left as well as the right. Coulter, however, is a huckster of such rotten fruits of labor that one ought, at all costs, avoid puchasing any of her wares.