In a very strange posting, Matthew Yglesias defends Mark Leon Goldberg for exaggerating and/or fabricating for journalistic color a few years ago and then engages in his usual straw man arguments , alleging a charge of anti-Semitism where known existed (rather, a comment about Mark making silly jokes about religion). Mark, to his credit, apologizes, although the manner in which he tries to explain himself contradicts what he told people at the time. The point, Matthew, is not how many years ago the incident was: Everyone in the policy community assesses which journalists regardless of ideology are honest and accurate and which perhaps take too many liberties, if only so we know who is serious or honest enough to talk to regardless of what their politics may be. Nor is the point whether someone is overly sensitive to such inaccuracies or fabrications relevant. Rather, the point is that fabrication and/or exaggeration for the sake of color is neither acceptable nor honest, and publications that accept or encourage it for humor or other reasons do themselves a disservice. As soon as you eschew principles because you dislike the subject of the fabrication or like the young journalist trying to be funny, then you’re headed down a slippery slope. Mark’s subsequent work–while I do not always agree with it–is more serious; he no longer substitutes ad hominem attacks for substantive arguments. That’s a good thing.