The Washington Post knows “death panels” are a right-wing lie, dreamed up to falsely demonize health care reform and Democrats, even if it means scaring the elderly away from their doctors' office. And yet the Post sometimes can't bring itself to actually say any of that. That may seem like an odd aversion to the truth for a newspaper, but it probably doesn't surprise regular readers of the Post.

And so it offends (but does not surprise) that, despite knowing that Sarah Palin was lying when she conjured up the image of government “death panels,” the Post runs this noxious misinformation from Cal Thomas:

That battle will be accompanied by the continuing political conflict between social conservatives and the Obama administration over same-sex “marriage,” and “death panels” as part of “advance directives” being promulgated Dr. Donald Berwick, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services. Dr. Berwick is a known admirer of Britain's National Health Service and an advocate of rationed care, a term he doesn't use, but in an Orwellian manner would produce the same results with government deciding who gets to live and who is allowed to die based on a formula established by government.

The Washington Post not only prints Thomas' health care lies -- and vicious anti-Muslim bigotry -- it promotes him as a “distinguished” panelist who is part of an “intelligent, informed, eclectic, respectful conversation.” I'd hate to see what they consider uninformed and disrespectful.