In a simpler time not so long ago Wilson would have equated to this:

Joe Wilson = Benedict Arnold

The ‘crime’ he has committed is not a matter of misassessment or bad assumptions made. His bigger crime is one against his fellow Americans who handed him a position of trust, he then turns upon us for his own gain. May he rot in the nether regions.

As to the journalists, I can only attribute their errors to the desire of getting a byline at the expense of performing the first rule of reporting — validate the source. The veracity of mainstream journalists has been eroding for years but seems to have crested here in the last 2-3 to the point that the public is starting to notice the problem.

Fact is I would wax poetic for Woodward and Bernstein again. At least when they busted open the Watergate affair they broke all sorts of sweat to validate their sources. Sourcing does not even get a second glance today.