Covering one of the year's biggest news stories, Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal managed to get the story exactly wrong. The paper, though, has refused to acknowledge, let alone explain, its glaring gaffe.

From Monday's Journal, right on the front page:

Democrats to End Union Standoff

The Journal reported as fact that Democrats would soon end the “game of political chicken” in Wisconsin when the 14 state legislators who had fled to Illinois in order to block Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union agenda would return, thereby allowing a vote to take place. (i.e. Democrats were caving.)

How did the Journal know that? Because Wisconsin Democrats “said” they were going to return, even though the newspaper did not include a single direct quote to prove that point. It was odd because Democrats hadn't “said” anything about returning to Wisconsin to any other news outlet. Just the Journal.

Then on Tuesday, the Journal reversed course and announced both sides had opted to "dig in." Suddenly, the newspaper's scoop about Democrats ending the standoff vanished.

Since then, of course, we all know it was Republicans who ended the standoff when, late on Wednesday night, they rewrote the controversial union-bashing bill so that it could pass the legislature while Democrats remained in Illinois.

It would be nice if Murdoch's newspaper explained to readers what happened to its Monday exclusive about Democrats ending the Wisconsin standoff.