Glenn Greenwald delivers a royal smack-down to Time Magazine's Joe Klein.

Klein wrote in Time that the Democrat-backed FISA bill would force the government to get FISA court approval to eavesdrop on non-U.S. persons, and how this would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans. He also implied how Democrats must be "beyond stupid" for passing this bill, and hit them for their partisanship.

The only problem is that the bill doesn't do any such thing. Greenwald points out how the wording of the bill is plain in this regard, and how Klein obviously didn't read the bill at all.

Once caught in the act, Klein digs his hole deeper by trying to pretend that his error in fact was still in dispute.

What Klein did was what too many journalists do. He relied on what his sources told him, instead of checking out the facts. It happens far too often. I remember getting hit with this once last year when I asked U.S. Senate candidate Jack Carter a question I had picked up somewhere without checking. Carter shot that one back at me, which made me look rather stupid. It was a good lesson that needs to get relearned from time to time. It's too easy to trust a trusted source and not do the homework in checking the facts.

We all need to hold journalists' feet to the fire in this regard.