Even I, cynic that I am, was surprised at how fast my recent remarks about biased writing and reporting would REALLY come true.

On July 2nd, CNN retracted its story that the U.S. military used nerve gas during a Vietnam-era mission in Laos to kill American defectors. CNN said an internal investigation concluded that its joint report with Time magazine could not be confirmed and apologized to viewers, Time and U.S. military personnel.

I guess Time and CNN couldn't let the facts get in the way of such a cool anti-military story. Sarin, the nerve agent in question, is so deadly that a single drop on the skin can kill. That being widely known, the assertion that the commandos on the Laos raid were able to protect themselves just by putting on gas masks was absurd.

The two main producers of the report, Jack Smith and April Oliver, were fired following a CNN-requested investigation by prominent media attorney Floyd Abrams. Senior producer Pam Hill resigned, while the lead reporter, Peter Arnett (he of the infamous baby formula incident in the Gulf War), was merely reprimanded.

Unrepentant to the end (or even beyond the end), Smith and Oliver said they stood by the "Valley of Death" story.

"We presented the facts that we gathered," Smith said. "This was a report on America's secret army. There is no documentation." (Of course, there still is common sense and truth.)

Smith, showing a wee bit of hubris, added that CNN's decision "will not send a chill through investigative reporting of secret military operations - it will freeze it."

Oliver, appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," and demonstrating the extent of her delusions, defended her work and criticized CNN management for its retraction.

"They couldn't take the heat, they couldn't take the military establishment coming down on them, they were threatened with a boycott by veterans ... they didn't want to take the controversy," she was quoted in an ABC transcript as stating on the program.

Arnett, who covered the Gulf War from Baghdad for CNN and won the Pulitzer Prize while with The Associated Press for his coverage of the Vietnam War, received only a reprimand because he was not involved in much of the reporting, a CNN official said.

Retired Maj. Gen. Perry Smith, the CNN military analyst who quit over the report, disagreed with that assessment and questioned whether the action against Arnett was sufficient.

"He was intimately involved in pulling the story together," Smith said on WCNN, an Atlanta radio station not affiliated with the Cable News Network. "I don't understand why April Oliver gets fired and Peter Arnett gets a reprimand. ... I don't think it's appropriate for Peter Arnett to stay with CNN."

But, General Smith, Peter Arnett is an i-i-i-icon! If he goes, what would be left?

THIS is CNN....

And, a few more little mistakes:

On June 28th, the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a front-page apology to Chiquita Brands International Inc., saying its series of stories questioning the company's business practices were untrue and based on stolen voice mail. The newspaper fired the lead reporter and agreed to pay more than $10 million to avert a lawsuit.

Boston Globe columnist Patricia Smith, a 1998 Pulitzer Prize finalist, was forced to resign last month after admitting she made up people and quotations in four columns this year. The American Society of Newspaper Editors withdrew her 1998 Distinguished Writing Award. The Globe says that Smith may have fabricated as many as 48 other columns since 1995.

Editors at The New Republic apologized to readers last month after discovering in May that associate editor Stephen Glass invented all or part of 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for the magazine. Glass was fired after confessing he had "embellished" a story about computer hackers in the May 18 issue. George magazine also said Glass used two fabricated quotations in a profile of Vernon Jordan.

As the Kingston Trio might now ask: Where have all the standards gone? As I might answer: Gone to political correctness, every one.