...is probably still nursing a hangover from the long Thanksgiving weekend. This whole Glenn Greenwald episode probably blindsided her. She just wants to drink her coffee, read emails, and get a late start on her "Cyber Monday" shopping. But here comes a reporter to ask a pesky question pertaining to the quality of her editing. Poor, poor Priscilla, Queen of the Just Deserts.

My guess is Priscilla's whole editing process, when she gets one of Joe Klein's pieces, is to run the spell-check, then skim through the piece looking for a convenient spot to add the word "kerfuffle." Then she probably goes out for more coffee.

Anyway... I'd hate to have Glenn Greenwald on my case. I am sure the Time people would cry "Uncle!" in a second if their stubborn egos weren't in the way. It's hard to rise to the occasion of admitting one's mistake when somebody is browbeating you over it. So much easier to slam down the phone.

It's down the list below getting Time to properly correct the story and promise more rigorous fact checking, but we must continue to insist that journalists reveal their sources when those sources have clearly lied to them.

You are absolutely right. I was just starting an Update about this point when I saw your comment. This is a vital point

They'd probably hire Monica Goodling or Michelle Malkin in his place.

However, we would be better off without being stabbed in the back continuously by yet another token liberal.

And I'm fine with consigning Time to the same bin as the Washington Times if that's how they want it. A shame that such a storied publication goes down the tubes, but at least we would know to read them as a partisan rag rather than a journalistic publication.

It's really kind of amazing the Deputy Managing Editor at Time would blurt what she did, and then hang up on Jane. Jane Hamsher, no less. I actually had to laugh. That's a MySpace junior high response if I ever heard one. One assumes, I suppose, that Priscilla Painton is at least 25? As someone said at FDL, It must be time to call for a blogger's ethics panel. No irony there, eh? It'd be simply funny if 4 million people weren't dumber for having read Joe Klein's gut check on FISA, than if they hadn't read anything about FISA at all. I'm sure I'll dig down to outrage shortly, but I can't get Painton's flustered frustration out of my mental imagery just yet, and the image is hilarious.

Emails can be deleted in a second.

You can just call Time at 212 522 1212 and ask for Richard Stengel. I did so this morning, and got a very nice, very professional woman who listened to my brief complaint, took my number and told me someone would call me back. I don't expect to hear from Rick (or anyone), but taking up the time of an actual person at the magazine is an incredibly effective way of attracting attention. A couple dozen of these phone calls will work wonders. Sooner or later, that nice woman will ask Rick "Hey, whassup with this Klein?"

My impression is that Time, and a lot of the ‘mainstream media’, see their responsibility as to accurately report what important people are saying. Reporting on who is actually telling the objective truth can be sort of interesting, but is not really important because reality ‘is what people make it’ - talking about objective reality is sort of like talking about the ingredients of a good meal instead of enjoying the meal.

A nonsensical interpretation of the role of the press like what I describe in the previous paragraph enables someone like Joe Klein to write, and Priscilla Painton to edit, a column which is blatantly wrong and think that each of them has done their jobs - the column did accurately report what their Republican sources had said (and it even mentioned that Joe Klein had talked to Democratic sources!), therefore, in their view, it is an accurate column. I suspect that they do not really understand what people are upset about. Which, for me at least, explains a lot about why things are so very messed up.

... that the Democrats don't use their considerable resources to put up more of a fight--little less than a year before a national election.

TIME's mendacity is, for me, just half the story; in a sense, that's what you get from profit-driven authoritarian-loving media sources like TIME. Corporations like Time Warner should, of course, be fought tooth-and-nail and I tip my (metaphorical) hat to Glenn's solid contribution to that fight.

But the Democrats' near-masochistic love of abuse and their timidity in the face of bullying challenges are the other side of the story. If they can't defend themselves for a change, can't stand up for their own alleged beliefs, one begins to wonder what their real priorities are.

...and ask her to do a story on Klein and Painton à la Rather and Mapes. Tell her we would especially like to see her say that Klein has a "history of rushing into the inferno". And the fact that liberals have been calling Time Magazine "biased since before man walked on the moon seems to have done little to deter him." We want to see how it plays when she has the added knowledge of being inside the media organization she is tearing up. Klein and Painton sure didn't say the things they should have as "the subject of a media inquisition." We want to hear Priscilla Painton say, "We're getting whacked. And it's not fun." Come on, Amanda, you do hold media rock star feet to the fire for a living, don't you?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,995194-3,00.html

"I spoke with some of those staffers on the day I first wrote about Klein's article. They were livid about the flatly false characterizations from Klein about their bill. I tried to get them to issue statements, and they didn't seem to want to (which I found both annoying and revealing - why shouldn't they protest publicly after being smeared like that??), but some did suggest they would contact Klein. I have no idea if they did."

Flip the coin & do you think for a second that Republican staffers would even hesitate?

Unbelievable !!