Austin Bay's Jamil Hussein mea culpa.

From today's Austin American-Statesman.

In a column that ran in the American-Statesman on Dec. 1, I wrote that I doubted that an Associated Press source for a story originating in Baghdad existed. The story involved an allegation that six Sunni Arabs were murdered and set on fire. It turns out the AP source not only existed but had a two-year track record. The AP answered the questions raised on the two Web sites my column quoted. The Iraqi Ministry of Interior later admitted that police Capt. Jamil Hussein did work for the ministry in Baghdad.

The AP and other wire services are the backbone of truth on this planet. "New media" such as blogs still lack the reporting capacity of the wire services and major news operations. I am delighted to apologize to the Associated Press and congratulate the AP's Baghdad bureau for standing by their sources.

— Austin Bay

"Backbone of truth" -- good job, Austin.

Here's betting Putz, Michelle Malkin, and the rest of the other wingnut AP-bashers ignore this. Bay just told them in no uncertain terms that they have far less credibility than the terror-emboldening jihadist Bush-haters at the AP.

That's gotta hurt.

UPDATE:

No such mea culpa from Putz, who's still calling Jamil Hussein an "embarassment" -- to the AP. That's some kinda chutzpah.