July 18, 2006. (A Long Absence)

Let me get back to this blog after a long absense:

In today's Grapevine, Brit Hume is shows himself to be meeting to his usual low journalistic standards on at least two accounts.

Noting liberal criticism of California senator Barbara Boxer's decision to support Joe Liberman's candidacy against a strong primary challenge, Hume claims that:

California fundraisers have accused Boxer of putting loyalty before principle, and liberal blogs have called her a "foolish, selfish sellout."

As usual, Hume sees little need to provide a reference of any sort for this quotation, so most readers will come away without knowing that the phrase "foolish, selfish sellout" appears only in the comments section of a blog post on Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post.

Later, Brit Hume makes the claim that:

New Jersey Republican Senate candidate, Ton Kean Jr. has pulled ahead of incumbent Democratic Senator Robert Menendez for the first time, after trailing by seven points just a month ago. Kean holds a 40 to 38 advantage over Menendez in a new Quinnipiac university poll...

But Hume fails to note that the poll had a +-3% margin of error, meaning that statistically, the race is a dead heat and neither candidate can claim to hold an advantage over the other. To be fair, this sort of statistical sloppiness is common, even when it comes to real journalists.