Because Andrew Breitbart can't handle the truth

In launching his latest smear campaign against the press, this time targeting a CBS affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska, Andrew Breitbart has again convincingly advertised the fact that he has no idea what journalism is. Or he does, and simply has no interest in practicing it. Because again, the latest Breitbart/GOP Noise Machine press-hating creation illustrates that when faced with breaking some actual news, Breitbart and his band of irresponsible bloggers refuse to do the ethical thing and instead opt for the partisan cheap shot.

Here's the simple truth: If Breitbart and company were genuinely serious about reporting out the story of the voice mail that was mistakenly recorded on the phone of a Joe Miller's campaign aid and left by reporters at the CBS affiliate, Breitbart would have contacted KTVA prior to publication and asked for a comment. Breitbart would have given KTVA a chance to give its side of the story because that's what journalism means – being truthful and transparent.

But yet again, Breitbart's team couldn't summon the courage to actually practice journalism. Breitbart couldn't summon the courage to do the right thing. Why? Because, as with his summertime Shirley Sherrod debacle, Breitbart likely understood that if the other side was contacted and context was provided, the beloved gotcha would evaporate. i..e There would be no therethere.

In other words, Breitbart's more committed to the smear than he is to the truth.

So as with the Sherrod smear campaign, Breitbart didn't contact the central player of the right-wing attack. In fact, it appears that Breitbart's team specifically did not contact for comment, because they knew if they did, the attack would go poof! So just like Breitbart announced last summer that he wanted to talk to Shirley Sherrod after he posted his out-of-context smear that condemned her a racist, Breitbart's team apparently made no effort to talk to anyone at KTVA prior to posting the audio of the phone call and prior to announcing KTVA guilty of malpractice.

Instead, Breitbart's team posted the raw contents of a garbled phone message, refused to contact KTVA for comments, pretended they knew exactly what the garbled message meant (they didn't), and acted like they were practicing journalism all along.

Except that, of course, they're not.

BTW, Is anyone at ABC News paying attention to Breitbart's latest, press-hating debacle?