The Associated Press reported today that "[a]n independent British report into the leak of hundreds of e-mails from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved, a finding many in the field hope will calm the global uproar dubbed 'Climategate.'" The AP further reported:

The inquiry by former U.K. civil servant Muir Russell into the scandal at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit found there was no evidence of dishonesty or corruption in the more than 1,000 e-mails stolen and posted to the Internet late last year. But he did chide the scientists involved for failing to share their data with critics.

“We find that their rigor and honesty as scientists are not in doubt,” Russell said. “But we do find that there has been a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness.”

Russell's inquiry into the scandal is the third major investigation into the theft and dissemination of the e-mails, which caused a sensation when they were published online in November, right before the U.N. climate change conference at Copenhagen.

As Media Matters has noted, numerous media outlets -- led by Fox News -- advanced the right-wing “Climategate” smear as well as other attacks after the stolen CRU emails were published online. So will these media outlets now report that this investigation has found the “rigor and honesty” of the scientists smeared by the phony scandal is “not in doubt”?