Another One Bites His Tongue

From Instapundit:

In the past, I’ve relied on Charles’ assessments of other blogs and bloggers, and it’s now clear that was a mistake on my part.

Charles, I wish you well, but . . . well, I don’t really have much else I want to say right now.

Umm… if you can’t think of anything to say right now, I can offer a few talking points. For example, how about an apology for believing him without checking his “facts”? Hours were spent gathering research to refute his scurrilous charges but none of the bigs cared enough to perform due diligence.

Back in 2007 I learned that the upper reaches of the Blogosphere bumped right up against the MSM. Fact-checking is tedious work, isn’t it? Or is it that European politics are too complicated and boring to bother exploring? Or is it the American hubris that only what happens here or what we cause to happen elsewhere has any meaning?

How about when Charles threw reputable people like Oriana Fallaci under the bus? Didn’t that matter enough to elicit some concern?

Only Michelle Malkin didn’t stop linking to us. The rest of the major American bloggers just whistled past the graveyard. Fortunately for us, the large European blogs began linking so our traffic eventually recovered.

[By the way, a response to those who have said that blog traffic doesn’t matter: if you’re serious about your work and you believe in what you post on your blog, then your statement is pretense at best. People who write for the public, whether on blogs or elsewhere, are engaging in an effort to be heard. In some few cases, people write in blogs, but they only allow a few people to access their written material. That’s another matter. But a public blog? Traffic matters indeed.

In fact, de-linking another blogger is the height of passive-aggressive hostility, and Charles Johnson leads the pack in that regard.]

Glenn Reynolds continues:
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UPDATE: Reader Rollory writes:

The most amazing thing about Charles Johnson is how he did the same thing to multiple people, one after another, over the course of two years, and in every case, everybody who might have had some impact by speaking out about it and pointing out what a dishonest liar the man is, stayed quiet and either said nothing or empty platitudes like “I don’t know all the details” and deliberately ignored the repeated and clear pattern of behavior. Until, that is, he gets around to them, and all of a sudden they’re shocked and surprised that he could be such a dishonest liar.

It was worse than that, Reader Rollory, at least for us. Not only did these folks not say anything or spout platitudes, they pretended we didn’t exist anymore. Now I know what it means to be publicly shunned. It’s a powerful weapon.

Fortunately, after Charles’ depredations and the jejune conclusions of the so-called Sanity Squad, we’re immune to such behavior now. Ignore us? Delink us? It’s your problem, your karma. For that we have Chazzer to thank.

Oh, right, I almost forgot the kick in the gluteus maximus from Pajamas Media. But that turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for us. We were immunized then against the political correctness that is an opportunistic host on PJM just as it is on the MSM. Political correctness is so pervasive a virus that neither conglomerate can recognize any longer what subjects and words are verboten. Instead of cortical blindness, it’s verbal blinders.

Mr. Reynolds ends with this by-now shopworn rationalization:

What can I say, Ed? You’re right. I trusted him - even though I stopped reading or linking him much years ago because he seemed kinda extreme - and I was wrong to do so. As penance, I guess now it’s my turn for the Two-Minute Hate.

“…he seemed kinda extreme - …” That’s it?? That’s what you call his hatreds and his distortions and outright fabrications? The most you can work up is “kinda extreme”? Isn’t that kinda lame? Charles Johnson spent two years relentlessly attacking the integrity of many good people. So does, say, Dan Rather get the same break for his sin as you’re giving Charles here? Just asking.

I have a better idea. How about going back and apologizing to those people whose reputations were damaged by Charles Johnson? Sometimes life gives us the opportunity to make amends. We can take the easy way out and shrug with a “kinda extreme” or we can revisit the scene of our negligence and thereby make amends.

Penance is about making restitution, not about easy outs.

This isn’t to say that a public response is necessary, but how about this time you read the damn documentation about Chazzer’s villainy?

Now there’s real penitence for you, Mr. Reynolds.