Fancy That - Apologies Work!

Via Instapundit, it seems that National Geographic learned that some pictures attached to a story were faked by the photographer.

That page has a link to the National Geographic forums. The comments there pretty much universally praise the editors for their candid admission, explanation of how and why they were duped, and apology for the error. In addition, we get the following gems:

"Good think, Dan Rather doesn't work for National Geographic. That is what an appology should sound like. Note: they never mention that the thrust of the story was correct and that just the photographs were wrong." The Snake Guy.

"Apoligy accepted, and thank you for the integrity to fully investigate the faked images without having to be dragged kicking and screaming into the admission. Your fine publication shows the sort of integrity others should aspire to." Brett Carnaby.

"What a brave and decent way of handeling a mistake like this. Hats off to National Geographic. Would that other media had the same decency. Congratulations for facing the issue and solving it this way." Miguel.

"National Geographic Magazine, like CBS, has become agenda-driven. But unlike Dan Rather, when confronted with fraudulent information, fess up and do the right thing. The agenda may be wrong, but at least it's not fraudulent. Kudos." Paul.

And so forth. There's a lot more, assuredly the product of getting an Instalaunch. Perhaps the best part is that there is another story circulating the blogs today about yet another CBS stroy slamming Bush, and relying on totally debunked information. From Powerline - who provided a huge part of the thrust on the first Dan Rather story - linking RatherBiased.com and Little Green Footballs.

So what's this one all about? CBS wants to scare you into thinking that Bush will reinstate the draft. After all, even as I write this, there are bills in the House and the Senate that would do just that! The only (minor) problems with the story are that the bills were sponsored by Democrats, and that the bills are basically dying in committee because no Republicans will sign on to them.

Not that either of those two points should get in the way of a good story.

Query: Is CBS actually trying to lose more viewers?

But to be fair, I'll leave CBS with this tip to a nice juicy story. I heard that George W. Bush likes to go to the desert, strap on rocket-powered skates, and chase after very crafty birds so he can viciously devour them. I bet I can find a totally authentic picture, too.