The air out of the balloon

Ann Althouse and her commenters are giving Scrappleface some stiff competition. It's not as though this kind of newswriting is a recent thing, though. Anybody remember Jayson Blair's pieces? Some samples:

Lance Cpl. James Klingel of the Marines finds himself lost in thought these days when he is not struggling with the physical pain, his mind wandering from images of his girlfriend back in Ohio to the sight of an exploding fireball to the sounds of twisting metal.

The Rev. Tandy Sloan has presided over many a funeral and memorial service in his decades as a pastor in a section of the city that has seen its share of violence.

Even today, Linda Davies was still clutching the note that Pfc. Jessica Lynch, her former kindergarten student, sent six weeks ago from the desert of Kuwait , set out on pastel paper in a schoolgirl's round handwriting and marveling at how far she had come from her home in rural West Virginia.

''I can say I've been to places that half of Wirt County will never see,'' Private Lynch, 19, wrote with the wonder and awe of a country girl who had not visited Charleston , the state capital, until she graduated from high school but had now embarked on what she plainly saw as a great adventure.

And the famous:

Gregory Lynch Sr. choked up as he stood on his porch here overlooking the tobacco fields and cattle pastures, and declared that he remained optimistic -- even though a military official had just come by to warn him to brace himself, that even worse news could be coming any day now.