A reader writes:
I'm the source that took the Smith story to Edsall. I gave the story to him not to act on some partisan grudge but to correct the record and hopefully alert editors to how completely inaccurate Smith's reporting and over-the-top his "behavior" (I actually doubt he did much of what he claimed in the piece). But I should note that after laughing at his blog's melodrama, both myself and Chris from back to iraq.com alerted NRO that his reporting was loony.
They never responded or contacted either of us to see what the problem was, forcing me to try and find a reporter interested to bring out the problems. It's really a self-inflicted crisis for them. They knew his work was crap more than 6 weeks ago.
More than six weeks ago? Malkin has blogged that
Kathryn Lopez, to her credit, immediately disclosed the controversy to readers.
My italics. I don't know the timeline, but the email above is from Beirut photo-journalist, Mitchell Prothero. And Smith was writing for NRO all that time - and still is. Here's K-Lo's assessment of Smith as of Friday:
I thank Smith for his good, brave work. He's a smart, reliable reporter with a great patriotic spirit and sense of service.
Reliable? K-Lo has some more 'splaining to do.