I give up, Ian Shapira is right

Sometimes the Washington Post uses its "Story Lab" section on its website to be a bit self congratulatory. With the cop-with-gun-at-snowball-fight story, the Story Lab piece went horribly wrong, because in fact the Post had completely missed the story while the City Paper and other outlets got it right. But other times the Post is right that it got it right, while others got it wrong, and gosh they want to tell you about it. Probably the same instinct I'd have, I admit.

With that in mind I read Ian Shapira's Story Lab report on how various outlets -- including the Huffington Post and DCist -- spread the incorrect rumor that the Washington Times was coming to an end. The Post, in contrast, got it right. Shapira's piece seems a touch self-congratulatory at the end, and I didn't want to like it, but he is right: it is rather abominable that so many other media outlets just spread a false rumor. And at some point he has the right to say that.