I was noodling around on the web today searching out info on Spencer Ackerman, the “journalist” who advised colleagues on the JournoList to accuse conservatives of racism to distract the media from the Obama-Jeremiah Wright story. I found that Ackerman was recently let go from The Washington Independent. Ackerman claims it was ideological differences, but I think this story might have had something to do with the parting of ways.

I’ve been a newspaper editor for 30 years and just have to say this is the mother of all retractions. There are more crossed-out words in this post than remaining words. You can thank the new media, meaning the web and blogs, for the rule that errors aren’t just erased from history, a method many newspapers employed for years, but must be transparently corrected.

Still, after looking at this, how is it that Ackerman even got another job? Did Wired, his new employer, know about this, or was his evident left-wingism just too hard for them to resist?

Exit observation: There is no mention of this brouhaha on Ackerman’s blog, Attackerman, at the left-wing group blog Firedoglake. Does he really think this will go away if he just ignores it?