When it was reported that a couple of hoods had jumped Air America talk show host Randi Rhodes and knocked out some of her teeth, leftists and wobblies cried foul. "Right wing hate machine!" said John Elliot, a fellow host on AAR. Maybe there is one of those but Air America has retracted its claim that she was mugged at all. "On Sunday evening, October 14, Air America host Randi Rhodes experienced an unfortunate incident hindering her from hosting her show. The reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded." Poor Randi! But maybe, suggests a reader, it was an alcohol crime?

Our own commenter GBH writes:

Randi Rhodes was no more assaulted by a right-wing fanatic on Monday than Dick Cheney was. She, in fact, fell down and injured her teeth outside of a Midtown Irish bar at around 6 o'clock Sunday evening after downing about fourteen Ketel One Bloody Marys. She was abusive to the barstaff and generally gross, crass, loud, and pretentious. I genuinely hope she has a speedy recovery. I never would've disclosed this (I believe that anyone should feel free to hang out at Irish pubs at any time and not be concerned about someone publishing their behavior) if Air America hadn't grossly interpreted a drunken indiscretion and allowed it to be morphed into some bullish rhetoric on air. Whatever journalistic integrity the station may have ever had is now completely compromised. The manipulation of the public diminishes any cause, whether just or fabricated.

Happily, the inebriation of the public just burnishes the cause! How about it?