Bill Kristol, New York Times Hack, UPDATE

In his short tenure at The New York Times, neo-conservative commentator Bill Kristol has treated readers to his own brand of particularly stodgy, past the sell-by-date punditry. This week's attempted hatchet job on Barack Obama is just the latest Kristol-clear example of journalistic standards gone awry.

The piece contends that, for all of Obama's skill as a campaigner, the Illinois senator has been less than forthcoming about whether or not he actually attended a now-famous sermon in which Jeremiah Wright blasted the United States.
As The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder points out, the central claim that Kristol employs to show Obama's pattern of deceit--that Obama was in attendance for the sermon-- turns out to be wrong. Here's Kristol's assertion:

But Roland Kessler, a journalist who has written about Wright's ministry, claims that Obama was in fact in the pews at Trinity last July 22. That's when Wright blamed the "arrogance" of the "United States of White America" for much of the world's suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.

Kessler, a reporter for Newsmax (add snarky comment here), made his claim in a story he filed this past Sunday. In the story, he goes so far as to say that Obama nodded his head in agreement at the fiery rhetoric. In other words, not only was he there, but he liked what he heard.

Here's the problem. Obama wasn't there. He was in Florida. Quite simply, Kessler pulled the episode out of thin air. The Newsmax "story" is nothing but a political hit job posing as journalism, and Kristol eagerly bit into it like a nascent blogger, regurgitating the lie for his own purposes.

So, will Kristol issue a retraction? Will he admit that Obama was indeed being candid when he stated he wasn't in attendance on July 22 to hear Wright's sermon? Don't hold your breath.

UPDATE: Well, it seems that a good many readers contacted the Times. Bill Kristol has added the following paragraph to kick off his column:

In this column, I cite a report that Sen. Obama had attended services at Trinity Church on July 22, 2007. The Obama campaign has provided information showing that Sen. Obama did not attend Trinity that day. I regret the error.

Maybe next time he'll think twice before relying on Newsmax as a source. Also, "regretting the error" seems a bit muted considering Kristol essentially called Obama a liar about the July 22nd services.