MICKEY KAUS is chiding the Los Angeles Times, calling the Bremer/Alissa Rubin correction “defensive and un-mensch-like.”

And I’m going to twist the knife a bit more by quoting Iraqi blogger Omar on this:

It seems that some people in the major media still think they’re the only ones who have eyes and ears and cameras and that ordinary people cannot have access to the information except from the major media outlets. They underestimated the prevalence and the effect of the internet in connecting people to each other and making the readers in direct contact with real eyewitnesses at the scene of events. I hope this will serve to make them more careful in the future on what to report, or make sure that they report from a place in which there are no bloggers.

Heh. Of course, it’s worse than that — as it turns out that part of the speech was actually broadcast on CNN

The new Iraqi government which took office today will shepherd the country to elections by January 31, 2005. Ambassador Paul Bremer formally ended the U.S.-led occupation by turning over sovereignty to Iraqi leadership today, two days ahead of schedule. Bremer then left the country. But before he did, he had a farewell message for the people of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

L. PAUL BREMER, FRM. IRAQI CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR: The future of Iraq belongs to you, the Iraqi people. We and your other friends will help, but we can only help. You must do the real work.

The Iraq your children and their children inherit will depend on your actions in the months and years ahead. You Iraqis must now take responsibility for your future of hope. You can create that future of hope by standing fast against those who kill your police and soldiers, who kill your women and children, who wreck Iraq’s pipelines and power lines, and then claim to be your champions.

You can create that future of hope by supporting your government and the elections they are pledged to bring you. You can create that future of hope in a thousand different ways by sharing through your words and deeds a personal commitment to a stable and peaceful Iraq.

You, Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs, Shi’a and Sunni, Turkomen and Christian, you are more like each other than you are different from one another. You have a shared vision of how a united Iraq can, again, be a beacon of hope to the region. You have a shared hatred of the violence inflicted on you by those who abhor your vision. And you have a shared love of this wonderful, rich land.

Let no one pit you against each other. For when Iraqis fight Iraqis, only Iraqis suffer.

I leave Iraq gladdened by what has been accomplished and confident that your future is full of hope. A piece of my heart will always remain here in the beautiful land between the two rivers with its fertile valleys, it’s majestic mountains and its wonderful people. ‘ (END VIDEO CLIP)

(Via Free Will Blog.) So they didn’t just fail to notice something that was on Iraqi TV — and snark about it in an uninformed but nasty “news analysis” piece that accused Bremer of leaving without making a speech, and said he was afraid to look Iraqis in the eye — they missed something that was on CNN. Why do we listen to these guys?

Increasingly, of course we don’t. And judging by the L.A. Times’ “defensive and un-mensch-like correction,” they’re afraid to look us in the eye. And they should be.

UPDATE: In a related matter, Powerline features an email from the Washington Post’s Baghdad bureau chief, giving his side of the story. “The bottom line here is that I did not know anything about the taped remarks when I wrote that Bremer did not deliver a farewell address. Knowing what I now do, thanks in part to media watchdog bloggers, The Post has corrected the record. It’s too bad, though, that the CPA did not do a better job in informing the Western and Arab press about the broadcast.”