Well, yes, hopefully this is the case.

Hopefully nothing, it is the case.

The difference between you and me, Brian, is that you seem to think Alex is a political hack who acted like a professional journalist in this correction. I think Alex is a professional journalist who acted like a hack in the original article.

knee-jerk response to ANY attack on Sarah Palin

A quick response to disparaging mischaracterizations and lies? I suspect you're smart enough to realize that that is going to continue.

I only responded to Brian only as I thought it disingenuous of him to parse out the part of the excerpt that had no real meaning in the context of the thread.

Because presumably Alex posts retractions and correction because of his integrity and desire for the truth, not for praise in the comments.

Well, yes, hopefully this is the case.

Why should Alex have any incentive to do any more retractions now after YOU have shown the kind of unfairness that you accuse him of?!

Because presumably Alex posts retractions and correction because of his integrity and desire for the truth, not for praise in the comments.

Could have used this instead:

Given the above, I don’t think it’s fair to say necessarily that Palin explicitly supported this practice.

Or this, which you left out of your excerpt:

Most of the sites who are blogging this story are, of course, stating that Palin absolutely supported this policy, which I don’t think is warranted by the evidence at hand.

Then you say:

...but to harsh given the 'non-story' status of post...

Harsh? I don't know. I understand, as shown above, that even Alex was unsure whether it was a genuine story. But Alex was doing what bloggers do, asking questions. As you can tell from the title of his post:

Did Palin Approve Charging Rape Victims for Rape Kits?

He chose to ask this question at that time because it was blogworthy, as it was circulating in the blogs. And don't forget that John McCain had only recently chosen her as VP. At the time, she was hardly known to the majority of Americans. It is the media's job to inform. Is the media biased? Hell yes! Should they be more equitable? I think so. Is the question still fair to ask? Absolutely.

Like Alex stated:

If nothing else, I’d say that this is fair game to ask more questions and gather information about.

That's exactly what Alex did. He asked more questions, got the information and made a better determination. In this case, he admitted his initial speculation was incorrect.

Alex's post-title answer to his other post-title question:

Palin Did Not Charge Victims for Rape Kits

What a biased liberal asshole!

Had Obama chosen Sebelius, I would have expected to see this very type of questioning as well. But he chose someone isntead who's had national exposure for decades, perhaps for this very reason. I personally think it was a hypocritical mistake on Obama'a part, but we aren't talking about what I think, from my vast intellect.

It may well be that "libiots" lurk at OTB (really?), but it was my point that your righteous indignation and knee-jerk response to ANY attack on Sarah Palin was completely unwarranted in regards to at least Alex's post (not troll), subsequent comments, and RETRACTION!

Alex employs some ridiculous fairness when it comes to searching for facts, at the very least in this particular case. When all the media-induced "libiots" were content to get some garbage on her and leave it out there to fester- and I saw few substantive refutations anywhere else - Alex had the good sense to search, keep an eye out, and act on better information when it was available. You should applaud those efforts, not kick him in the mouth in the midst of retraction. It only makes you look like an unreasonable Democratic mascot.

Why should Alex have any incentive to do any more retractions now after YOU have shown the kind of unfairness that you accuse him of?! Vast intellect indeed.

[...]the prima facie evidence would lead one to believe she was aware of what Fallon was going to say about the policy.

Second, I don’t think that Palin could brush this off as saying that she wasn’t involved in police policy
[...]

However, as Mayor, the buck stops with her. She probably knew that the policy existed, and if she didn’t she sure as hell should have.

In comments Alex also continued

I myself would prefer to believe that Palin was not involved in this ugly policy, but there's a strong prima facie case that she was.
[...]
However, let's look at the facts. The Chief of Police admitted that they charge victime of rape for the cost of their kits. Wasilla is a small town. The Chief was a Palin appointee.
[...]
if that's true, I find that to be pretty deplorable. However, given the lack of direct quotes from Palin in the article, it remains a prima facie case. A strong case, to be sure,...
[...]

Hardly an attack of the caliber that many of the libiot trolls that lurk here at OTB employ, but to harsh given the 'non-story' status of post as based on Alex's own words.

I don’t think it’s fair to say necessarily that Palin explicitly supported this practice.

Some of the more harsh tone comes in with:

[...]the prima facie evidence would lead one to believe she was aware of what Fallon was going to say about the policy.

Second, I don’t think that Palin could brush this off as saying that she wasn’t involved in police policy
[...]

However, as Mayor, the buck stops with her. She probably knew that the policy existed, and if she didn’t she sure as hell should have.

In comments Alex also continued

I myself would prefer to believe that Palin was not involved in this ugly policy, but there's a strong prima facie case that she was.
[...]
However, let's look at the facts. The Chief of Police admitted that they charge victime of rape for the cost of their kits. Wasilla is a small town. The Chief was a Palin appointee.
[...]
if that's true, I find that to be pretty deplorable. However, given the lack of direct quotes from Palin in the article, it remains a prima facie case. A strong case, to be sure,...
[...]

Hardly an attack of the caliber that many of the libiot trolls that lurk here at OTB employ, but to harsh given the 'non-story' status of post as based on Alex's own words.

I don’t think it’s fair to say necessarily that Palin explicitly supported this practice.

Well I won't expect a retraction/correction then.

I do think the blogs and the media are pretty quick to believe whatever they hear about Palin and I think their fact checking has been rather haphazard and the corrections pitifully weak.

If, because you disagree with someone polically, you are ready to believe anything negative about them or what they may or may not have done.

B. Hussein Obama can make the statement William Ayers is just some guy living in his neighborhood and get away with it. No investigation concerning Obama and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

It's very rare that someone is capable of such insightful introspection, and then so aggressively refuse to apply that insight to themselves.