Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

After several mocking references to Jews, Christians, and Christian doctrine, Mr.
Franken scoffed at the war-hero credentials of John McCain, who was shot down
over North Vietnam, tortured and held in mostly solitary confinement at the notorious
hellhole called the Hanoi Hilton for more than five years.
"Anybody could get captured," Mr. Franken said, and waited in vain for laughs. But
he kept trying: "Essentially, he sat out the war." A few scattered boos. "Well, isn't
the idea to capture the other guys?"
I call McCaslin and get him on the phone. "That bit killed! Were you even in the same
room?" I ask indignantly.
"Uh, no," he says. Actually, he hadn't been at the event.
"What?! Then how could you write that?"
"I didn't." It turned out McCaslin hadn't even been aware that the "Boo of the Week"
had been in his column. "Wes Pruden probably added it."
"Who?" (At this point in my life, I wasn't as up on my rightwing media.)
"He's the editor. I'm pretty sure he was at the dinner last night."
"So the editor can add stuff to your column? Without your knowing it?"
"Yeah," McCaslin said with just a twinge of resignation. "It happens all the time."
I'd never heard of such a thing. This editor had deliberately put my routine through
the "de-irony-izer" to make me, a Democrat, look unpatriotic, and thereby serve his own sick
political agenda. And he put it under a columnist's byline without even consulting him. I had
no idea what to do with this. A letter to the editor seemed kind of futile.
So I sit on it. Waiting for just the right time to lay open this scandalous breach of
journalistic ethics.
And two years later, I get my opportunity. I'm asked to be the keynote speaker at the
American Society of Newspaper Editors. Maybe, I think, I can get the Washington Times expelled
from the association.
But I realize I was relying on just one source: McCaslin. To be fair, I at least had to
check with the editor for his version of the story. What was his name again?
I call the Washington Times and ask for their managing editor. I get a guy named Bill
Giles. Giles tells me that there is no way that McCaslin's story is true. He's adamant. An editor
would never insert something into a columnist's copy without consulting him. It would be
a total violation of every journalistic tenet.