Jonah Goldberg on Journalism

Searching for hard evidence of the upcoming Republican victory, Goldberg dons his investigative reporter's hat, which comes with a pipe and magnifying glass if you send in three extra box tops, and all reporterlylike reports that

[l]ast night I attended a book party for Young Guns. While there, I heard an interesting tidbit from a couple people I trust. Apparently the Judiciary Committee’s majority staff approached the minority staff with a seemingly gracious offer: Why don’t we refurbish the digs for the minority staff? They look a bit rundown.

This was welcome news since the minority staff (i.e., the Republicans) has been asking for a spruce-up for four years but got nothing from the Dems. But now, suddenly, the Democrats are very concerned about the quality of the digs they will have to use if they lose the majority. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence and it was all out of the goodness of their hearts.

One person I talked to said that they heard something about another committee where a similar offer was made, but I couldn’t confirm it.

It's journalism 101: If you hear something from two or more people at a partisan event concerning the coming defeat and general mendacity of your shared opponents: it is a confirmed fact; however, if you hear it from only one person at a partisan event concerning the coming defeat and general mendacity of your shared opponents:  it is an unconfirmed but still comforting fact. Both are facts just  like the missing Ws and general trashing narrative concerning the Clinton/Bush transition was a fact.


UPDATE:
I just reread the Salon article and its simply amazing how the trashing narrative and its dissemination are a nearly perfect microcosm for the whole of Bush administration's notion of the truth. That was published in May of 2001, and yet the press corps as a whole seems to have not internalized its meaning.

And there is this stunning little nugget:

To its credit, Fox acknowledged on . . . the same day the GAO report became public -- that there had been little evidence to support its vandalism claims. Later "Fox News Sunday" host Tony Snow went even further, apologizing to former Clinton staffers for his error. "OK, I'm sorry," Snow said on the program. "The ex-president's pals have a legitimate beef."