Too good to let pass

Andrew Sullivan tonight:

Journalists are supposed to provide accurate evidence for their claims. CBS didn't. And its response to the critics is to stonewall and try and change the subject. The correct response - the one they'd teach you in kindergarten journalism class - is immediately to check the authenticity of the documents as best you can, and if the doubts persist, to apologize immediately and yank the story.

He's definitely right about all of this. And while I know Sullivan's changed his stripes as of late and seen the light about Bush — the first crack in the armor being the FMA — he immediately follows that up with this, apparently said without irony:

Can you imagine what CBS News would do if a government official found to be peddling fake documents refused to acknowledge it? And kept repeating his story nonetheless? They'd be all over it.

... What is Dick Cheney's job again? I thought it was something official.

And would CBS be all over it? I seem to remember something at the center of this whole controversy, yes, wait, it's coming back to me: "They just had an opening for a pilot and I was there at the right time."

Now this whole thing is just another unbelievable fiasco in the middle of a campaign year that has defied logic, dating all the way back to the primaries. What the hell are they doing over there at CBS? And why the hell do everyone care so much? Well, because it's theatre: right down to the small stage.

Whether Rather goes, I could care less. If he is a hardcore, partisan Democrat, as so many claim, he should offer to resign only if, I dunno, Rumsfled does too. Or he should offer to give up his sources when Novak reveals his. May as well give up the ghost and make this melodrama while we're at it.

But what bothers me more is the presumptuousness of the spectators. Seems like everyone is attempting to explain why CBS is hiding its sources and trying to cover its ass, so they create their own subplots — usually with shady Democrats playing the role of Mephistopheles. Well, Occam's Razor and all, it's because CBS trying to cover its ass.

Yet, apparently people, such as this Sullivan e-mailer, are able to read from this the entire corrupt fabric of liberalism:

But while I was struggling with how to approach this election for those reasons, I must say that this unspeakably disgusting behavior by CBS has now made my decision easy. I always thought the clear liberal bias at CBS (and others) was just a natural consequence of the way the liberal journalists dominating MSM see the world rather than a concerted effort to push a liberal agenda (the fish don’t feel the water theory, as others have put it). I now see how wrong I was. If CBS is willing to not only shred even the pretense of journalistic ethics, but to actually conspire to commit fraud (as I think the evidence of ignoring experts and standing behind such obvious forgeries shows) in a desperate attempt to throw a presidential election and install their candidate, then I must do everything I can to oppose them. This means becoming an active supporter of President Bush. I would never have imagined that would happen, but all I can say is thanks, CBS, for exposing yourself and clearing things up."

Whaaaaa? I don't even know what to say.

Wait, yes, I do: get a grip people, there's a war going on right now.