Mark Steyn is the victim of shoddy reporting:

As I understand it, what we’re supposed to miss about US newspapers will be the “layers of fact-checking” and rigorous editing. In reality, a significant percentage of American newspapering is little more than provincial wannabes doing New York Times karaoke – which might have made more sense before young Sulzberger drove his paper to junk stock and into the arms of its unlikely Mexican benefactor. Meanwhile, tens of millions of real people hear Rush’s show, but any similarity between the audio and the version that appears in the “newspaper of record” is entirely coincidental.

As for my former colleague in Dublin, too many overseas “bureaus” in Washington boil down to paying someone to relocate halfway round the world, sit in an office at the National Press Building and transcribe The New York Times and Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room” all day long. An expensive business model.

Expensive, with a crappy product.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Related thoughts from Kaus:

I’ve been waiting for the day when a prominent pol resigns and for print MSM readers it appears to be out-of-the-blue, though everyone on the Web knows the whole story. But for WaPo’s Franke-Ruta and Kornblut, this would be that case. … In any case, more evidence that you can’t find out whats going on by reading the Times.

But you can find out things that aren’t going on, like Mark Steyn saying that Obama is like Saddam and the Dear Leader.