Journamalism 101

What can one even say when the executive editor the Washington Post seems to not have any idea what the most basic principles of journalism are? From a letter to Romenesko:

From CHARLES KAISER: Editor and Publisher quotes Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie as saying, "We are not judging the credibility of Kerry or the (Swift Boat) Veterans, we just print the facts." If that quote is accurate, the Post has abandoned a basic function of journalism.

The first duty of every reporter is to judge the credibility of his sources. The one thing we know from the Post's own reporting is that all of Senator Kerry's attackers in the Swift Boat controversy share a hatred of him because of his anti-war activism after he returned from Vietnam. This uniform hatred should be a red flag to any reporter repeating their attacks on Kerry for what he did as a Swift Boat Commander during the war. Combined with the fact that many of the people associated with the advertisement attacking Kerry were also involved with previous dirty tricks of Bush I and Bush II, including the Willie Horton ad and the scurrilous attacks on John McCain's war record, it is difficult to understand why the Post has taken these latest charges so seriously.