Think Progress yesterday published a charge that John McCain had plagiarized from a 1996 speech by Adm. Timothy Ziemer:

“These lines are not McCain’s own. As TP reader 5th Estate discovered, they were in fact taken largely from a 1996 speech by ret. Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer.

Nowhere in yesterday’s speech does McCain give credit to Ziemer. Additionally, it’s not the first occasion that McCain has stolen Ziemer’s words…”

“It’s unclear whether Ziemer is tied to the McCain campaign, but a search of both his campaign and Senate websites turned up no references to the admiral.”

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It’s always regrettable when a publication makes an error, and Think Progress did the right thing by retracting the charge quickly.

However, this type of charge being printed so quickly after a “tip”, is not the right thing to do. Once it gets printed, no matter how quick or prominent the apology, you can’t ever reach everyone who may have read it. Any serious charge should be exhaustively researched and vetted so that a retraction is never even considered. There once was a time where a retraction was the kiss of death for print media. Much has changed in the last several years and the news has morphed into the chase for the latest dirt, anonymous sources welcomed. For every one pubic figure, there are probably 100 people looking for ways to undermine them, and spreading lies, falsehoods and distortions is the name of the game.

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