Giving Proper Credit Where Credit Is Due

What is it with the right wing squawkers? It is a well known fact that the local right wing media makes their livings out of distorting the truth, twisting facts, and even telling outright lies. If this wasn't true, there would be no need for Whallah! to be ever watchful, ever vigilant, and fearless in our pursuit to bring you, the gentle reader, the real truth, as opposed to their venomous lies and slanders.

But for pity's sake, why do they always fail to at least give proper credit to their sources? This is easily exemplified by McIlheran quoting one of my posts, but only referring to the source as "some blogger or other".

And for some unknown reason, one of their favorite targets to shortchange giving credit to is Michael Horne, the astute observer/reporter who writes at the fine site of MilwaukeeWorld.
We first noticed this sort of skulduggery when Jessica (Where the heck has she been?) McBride gave him the short shrift by posting on some of Mr. Horne's work, but then giving the credit to another blogger.

Now, Jeff Wagner joins in this lack of blogging ethics with a post smearing the next Milwaukee County Executive, Lena Taylor. Wagner has this line from his post:

...Then there was the non-announcement announcement of her candidacy. ...

The reader would notice that the link (included from Wagner's post) leads to a column posted by Bruce Murphy, at Milwaukee Magazine. If the reader continues and reads Mr. Murphy's post, you would see that Mr. Murphy is also a journalist of high standards (and a darn good read as well) when he wrote:

It was actually Milwaukeeworld.com that jumped on the story first. My column credited that Web site with reporting Taylor’s intention to run, as declared in her speech at the Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo. But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel soon quoted Taylor to the effect that she wasn’t running yet.

For those of you who are interested, here is the link to Mr. Horne's post in which he broke the story of Senator Taylor entering the race.

What is with these right wing squawkers? Are they so afraid of the left that not only will they add a liberal site to their blogrolls, they refuse to give proper credit to the original author? What Wagner should have done, had he any scruples, would have linked to Mr. Horne's post, and noted that he found it through Mr. Murphy's column. Instead, Wagner only gives the credit to Mr. Murphy, and doesn't even mention Mr. Horne. (Incidentally, Mr. Horne has more journalistic skill than the whole lot of the squawkers combined, which may be another cause of their insecurity.)

Could you imagine what would have happened to this state if Wagner had actually won his bid for Attorney General all those years ago? He would have lost every case he prosecuted, as his ineptitude would provide legal fodder for even the most incompetent of lawyer wannabes. And he would have been absolutely humiliated if he were to be put up against one of the better attorneys in this fine state of ours.