KINDER'S COMMENTARY: LIBERAL MEDIA CONTINUE TO DISGRACE THEMSELVES WITH FABRICATION

June was a lousy month for the liberal media. First, The New Republic, long a liberal mainstay as a journal of opinion, had to fire a 25-year-old writer upon discovering that he had fabricated quotes and made up facts in no fewer than 45 articles. An unanswered question: What on earth was a 25-year-old kid doing writing for a journal of analysis and opinion, when he should be earning his spurs writing obits and covering the police beat for a paper somewhere?

Second, the snooty and prestigious Boston Globe, for decades an Eastern Seaboard liberal museum piece, had to fire a young columnist upon discovering that she had fabricated literally dozens of quotes. This young writer had won a prestigious award that the newspaper has now given back. For the record, the Globe some years ago was purchased by the New York Times Co., whose stuffy motto is a study in pomposity: "All the News That's Fit to Print." To many of us it has long been more like "All the News That Fits."

Then, three weeks of terrible publicity for CNN culminated in an apology, a retraction and an ignominious retreat from the field. It will go down in history as one of the worst journalistic hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people. "NewsStand," the launch of a new combination between Time-Warner products CNN and Time magazine, debuted June 7 with a blockbuster report about American forces during the Vietnam War. Operation Tailwind, "NewsStand" reported, was a 1970 American foray into Laos that involved the dropping of -- stop the presses! -- deadly Sarin nerve gas TO KILL AMERICANS!

Only one problem: None of it was true. The gas used was routine CS tear gas. Dozens of sources claimed by CNN denied that they had said any such thing. Other men placed at the scene turned out to be nowhere near it. It appears they took advantage of poor old Admiral Thomas Moorer, the former joint chiefs chairman, now 87 and living in a nursing home. CNN's top military consultant, a retired general, resigned in protest with a blast at his former colleagues.

Meanwhile, journalists far and wide poured down withering fire, disproving everything that could be checked, coming down out of the hills to shoot the wounded at CNN.

Who bears responsibility? Famed CNN war correspondent Peter Arnett was in the cockpit on this one. Anchors were CNN's Bernard Shaw and Jeff Greenfield. Time editors badly stained themselves by printing the garbage.

And then on July 2, CNN's president issued a complete retraction and an abject apology. The outfit known to many as the "Clinton News Network" is discredited, its humiliation total. CNN and Time will be years getting their reputation back, if indeed it ever happens.

What a vicious slander, this patriotic weekend, on the great American fighting man. What a vicious slander on America.

Let us, one and all, raise a glass to toast the old bumper sticker, "I don't believe the liberal media." Bring on Fox News, the irrepressible Matt Drudge, the fast-talking Chris Matthews, the new Conservative News Service, whomever. Let a thousand flowers bloom. For more than 30 years I have disbelieved the liberal media. How sweet it is to see them get their comeuppance.

Growing up during the crazy days of the '60s hippie rebellion, I used to marvel at the tendency, so common among my generation, to seek out reasons why we should hate a country as wonderful as ours. You don't hear much from that crowd anymore, unless you're trapped inside a liberal-arts faculty somewhere, reading Time or watching CNN.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.