The Czech Jayson Blair

Oh what a difference a long free-press tradition makes. Czech newspaper reporter Petr Pravda has much in common with the now-disgraced Jayson Blair. Both were star correspondents at their nation's paper of record (Mlada fronta Dnes, in Pravda's case), both wrote vivid details they did not witness, both used stolen quotes they did not attribute. The difference? Pravda (whose name translates to Peter Truth), was in Iraq covering the war, and his editors -- rather than being engulfed in scandal -- are blas? and even defiant about his journalistic sins. And so is the Czech press.

Link via Scott MacMillan.