Jason Zengerle just posted his response regarding the email attributed to Steve Gilliard on
TNR's The Plank.
Short story: the email he attributed to Gilliard was, in fact, not actually from Gilliard. Or anyone. (But he does deny fabricating it.)
Explanation below...
Zengerle explains why the mistake happened:
A source forwarded The New Republic three emails purportedly written by members of the "Townhouse" list--Glenn Greenwald, Mike Stark, and Steve Gilliard--expressing concern about the Armstrong-SEC story. The emails lacked timestamps and headers, so TNR checked the emails with two other sources who belonged to "Townhouse." Both of these sources vouched for the authenticity of all three emails (and two of the emails, Greenwald's and Stark's, are indisputably authentic). After returning to these two sources this weekend, TNR learned that when initially shown the three emails, both sources immediately recognized the 181-word Greenwald email and the 389-word Stark email; having determined that those two emails were authentic, the sources just assumed the 22-word Gilliard email was authentic, as well. We now know it wasn't. These were clearly honest mistakes on the parts of the second and third sources; and TNR has been unable to determine why the first source--who has not responded to messages--included this one piece of incorrect information along with the accurate information the source sent us.
He then evaluates this as a "minor" error though admits that any such errors are unacceptable.
He concludes first by regurgitating the smear and then urging everyone to keep their eye on the ball and focus on what is really important: that several years ago Jerome Armstrong wrote about astrology on a different blog. (I wish that was a joke, but he really truly does say that that is the important issue.)
Update: Don't know what this is about?
Original Zengerle
article
Zengerle follow-up
Kos' response
Zengerle publishes emails in further update
Glenn Greenwald says the email is fake
Steve Gilliard concurs the email appears fake
TNR Editor-in-Chief Martin Peretz gets a little preachy
TNR's Lee Siegel calls bloggers fascists for the reactions
Digby decides to quit blogging
Wolcott defends
David Brooks tries to remain relevant while slamming blogs
The Plank reminds us what important analysis looks like
Update II: Forgot to link to Hunter's diary on TNR, Peretz, facism, etc. Good stuff.