Why is the NYT sensitive about lying? The news media has been lying all my life: about Christianity, about the Bible, about Americna History, about morality, about Islam, about education, about evolution, about abortion, about homosexuality, about ??? So what's the big deal?

Michelle Malkin on Charlie LeDuff & New York Times on National Review Online: "The hotshot LeDuff is now in hot water over his cribbing of anecdotes from someone else's book about kayaking down the Los Angeles River for his own Page One fluff story about � you guessed it! � kayaking down the Los Angeles River. An embarrassing correction published in the New York Times on Dec. 8 explained:
An article last Monday about the Los Angeles River recounted its history and described the reporter's trip downriver in a kayak. In research for the article, the reporter consulted a 1999 book by Blake Gumprecht, 'The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth.' Several passages relating facts and lore about the river distilled passages from the book. Although the facts in those passages were confirmed independently-through other sources or the reporter's first hand observation-the article should have acknowledged the significant contribution of Mr. Gumprecht's research."