So the fact that nothing is ever "edited" or "fact-checked" anymore because of "the internet" is so great because of citizen journalism and no gatekeepers etc! But the down side is all the bullshit.

The LA Times, which now has an editorial staff of like, ten people? maybe? met some shady "political operatives" who love this wonderful new media landscape, because it allows them to plant whatever bullshit they want and watch it grow into cable news stories and "serious" analysis pieces.

Well, Times, some of us have been on this beat for a while! But hey, you got some neat quotes from your unnamed political hack sources.

One operative told me this week about planting attacks on opponents in partisan blogs, knowing the stories could bleed into mainstream news outlets, without leaving any incriminating fingerprints. Another described how he got green reporters to write stories (no campaign cash wasted!) on ads that the candidate had no intention of ever paying to put on TV.

By "green reporters" do you by chance mean, say, the entire staff of The Politico? They sure did a lot of that this last campaign season! (Hell, everyone did. They are just the most transparent about their symbiotic relationship with the venal hacks they allow to use them to "drive the stories" or whatever they call getting a Drudge link and a segment on Hardball.)

Here is a sad bit:

The consultants cited a few recently departed veteran journalists who wouldn't fall for such funny business: Time magazine's Jay Carney, the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman (the Tribune, like the L.A. Times, is owned by Tribune Co.) and our paper's Dan Morain, who took a buyout last month and went to work for a lawyers' lobbying association.

Anyway, breaking: there is a lot of bullshit out there and everyone just repeats it, all the time, unquestioningly, because all the smart people were laid off.