Giving opinion a bad name

In a "Guest Comment" at National Review Online, Michelle Malkin way overreaches when she likens the Charlie LeDuff L.A. River miscue (posted about earlier today) to "another ugly Jayson Blair-like scandal" for the New York Times. Uh, no. LeDuff omitted mention of a book and got no facts wrong. Blair invented fictitious people, anecdotes and entire stories -- and did it over and over and over again.

But why let the facts stand in the way of a naked NYT smear. Malkin signals her agenda when she raises LeDuff's ethnicity in her first paragraph. (Update: Instapundit appears to buy into it)

On the other hand, NRO runs a nice paean to the Wright Brothers flight from L.A. writer Rand Simberg, who blogs at Transterrestrial Musings.

One hundred years ago today, two sons of an Ohio bishop of the United Brethren Church, and sons of the American midwest at the turn of the last century, successfully landed a heavier-than-aircraft on a particular wind-blown Atlantic dune, called Kill Devil Hill, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

That was their true feat — landing. Anyone can fly — just jump off a cliff or a tall building or bridge, and you'll fly for several seconds...