A pet peeve of mine: Sargent writes that “the conservative American Spectator magazine has weighed in on the affair.” No it hasn’t; Jim Antle has. The piece wasn’t an unsigned editorial (in fact, AmSpec doesn’t have unsigned editorials), it was the work of specific writer. It’s okay to ignore the byline when you’re quoting a wire story or a straight news article, which (at least in theory) is just a transmission of facts rather than one person’s viewpoint. But in opinion journalism, where the view expressed is not necessarily the editor’s or the publisher’s, you really should credit the author. Sargent’s done plenty of opinion journalism himself, and ought to know better.
