Politico has a story up, “Bill may be on ice by Copenhagen,” telling the sad tale of how the health-care issue’s slog may mean the U.S. doesn’t bring enrolled legislation to Copenhagen to show the rest of the world that they need not worry about negotiating with us, we’ve already unilaterally made the idea of harming ourselves into law.

In the story, reporter Lisa Lerner says of the 1997 Kyoto treaty that “then-Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the agreement, which was nonbinding without congressional ratification.”

Hmm, rather specific, saying Gore did that — yes, yes, now I recall endless stories relating how Bush couldn’t sign that tragically doomed if still symbolically signed (by Gore) Kyoto treaty – which is a nice pivot from the old story line that Bush refused to sign it, though both versions are unsupportable. The acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Natons Mission signed Kyoto on November 12, 1998; Bush never unsigned it, nor did he “withdraw from” a treaty we never formally joined.

Having had such fun with the media propagating the Bush-is-mean meme, I have taken notice of this new line (which I do recall hearing or seeing somewhere else recently). But of course when hearing or seeing that, I knew better than to pass along such a thing.

Journalists, however, who are experts in their craft — if not so much the substance of what they convey to large audiences — don’t just run with things they heard or saw somewhere when they don’t have any knowledge of the issue . . . but, well, it sounded right; it sort of fit a comfortable narrative. Like, say, eight years of “Bush refused to sign Kyoto”/”Bush withdrew from Kyoto”. Sometimes the rejection of “the Kyoto Protocols” was even gravely intoned (gosh, I’ve read the whole series!) as if from authority though obviously from one who trades in gravely intoning the conventional chatter of the fashionable set.

No. Passing along without checking (or, worse, having checked and still passing along) a common if false talking point, regardless of materiality, or an accepted narrative that just “fits,” why, that wouldn’t be journalism.

I sent a request a couple of hours ago asking where the reporter got that nugget, as I am genuinely interested who if anyone made that claim to her, or where she read it, and will pass along any answer, if received.