[Update] My Work Is Done

I think I can kick back for the weekend, proudly knowing I’ve done about the best I could this week. And ended on a high note.

I hurt an LA Times reporter’s feelings. [proud smile]

This is in reference to her story claiming that Baldwin’s gun had been modified and wasn’t working properly. After reading Meg James report, I wrote up my own column. I emailed her and pointed out that her “unnamed sources'” claim seriously conflicts with the FBI’s forensic examination of the gun, and with the charging affidavit.

She said she read the forensic report, but couldn’t see where it said the FBI broke the gun themselves.

I pointed her to right page. And made reference to checking sources’ stories before publication. She didn’t care for that.

I am a nice person, I sent you a nice email and you replied with mean and nasty insults. That’s sad.

The mean and nasty insult? I’d said: Have you considered that this tendency to rush a story out before you’ve.. you know, actually checked facts, may be why I, and many others, have long considered the LA Times to be extremely unreliable?

She also whined that she only had 28 minutes to get that story out. So I replied:

And in less than 28 minutes, I read a report citing yours, tracked down your story, read it, dug up the forensic report, re-read it, and wrote my own column, complete with links to your story and the forensic report, with quotes.

Oh, and emailed you.

I could have been even meaner and pointed out that an “entertainment writer” probably shouldn’t be trying to write about technical aspects of firearms. I leave the entertainment industry alone, except where — as in the Baldwin shooting — it intersects with my own area of semi-expertise.

Show of comment-hands: Who amongst my readers generally considers the LA Times to be reliable?

Added, 4/22″ Heh. Purely by coincidence, Dail Caller weighs in on the LA Times.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Here’s Everything The LA Times Got Wrong In Their Hit Piece About Us (Pretty Much All Of It)
What happens when you combine wealthy business elites with axes to grind, a semi-retired reporter out of his depth and a major newspaper with low editorial standards? You have the perfect recipe for a factually-challenged hit piece against honest journalists.