Leaking Oil, the New Republic Loses Altitude Rapidly...

Mark Kleiman has a comment on the New Republic's Jason Zengerle's oath of omerta:

The Reality-Based Community: I've heard lots of excuses for continuing to protect sources who supply false information, but the source's own refusal to return phone calls is a new one one me...

I emailed Jason Zengerle:

Do you really believe that Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas are running a pay-for-play scheme in which politicians hire Armstrong and then get the support of Kos?

The answer I got back:

well, it's complicated. i don't know enough to say "yes, i do," but i do know enough so that i can't definitively say, "no, i don't." right now i'm trying to figure out the answer and determine if the stuff that looks kind of fishy really is fishy, or if it's innocent. jz

I take Jason's answer to be: "No, but I'm too ashamed to actually say 'No' outright."

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?