Another Lesson in "What Comes Around Goes Around"

The incriminating text:

Between the airport and the committee's office, we (my escorts and I) passed by the sprawling Hezbollah tent city -- some 200-plus heavily armed Hezbollah militiamen -- positioned between the parliament and the Serail, basically the headquarters of the prime minister, his deputies, and all the cabinet members.

The correction:

Did I physically see and count 200 men carrying weapons? No. If I mistakenly conveyed that impression to my readers, I apologize.

If?

Mistakenly?

On some level, I suppose you just have to admire the chutzpah to write such a qualified correction ... IF I said what I said gave YOU the impression that what I SAID was true, which was the point of writing exactly what I wrote ... THEN I apologize.

On the other hand, I seriously cannot make up a line like this::

This is a case where I should have caveated the reporting by saying that I only witnessed a fraction of what happened (from a moving car) ...

In other words: I should have said up front how I was just making stuff up. Amazing how folks like Instapundit, Powerline and Whited (and just about any other Republican blogger you can name) have been so silent on the issue despite their "genuine" grieving over TNR's Beauchamp incident.