When ignorant journalists evaluate ignorant journalists

I want to say one thing about Hitchens: when he was still posing as a leftist and when he used to attack Israel, no one ever spoke a word in his favor in the US press.  It was only after his opportunistic transformation that the Washington establishment fell in love with him:  "Bill Keller has a predictably “glowing” account of Christopher Hitchens here. The funny thing is that you know Hitchens’ supposed mastery of all things Lebanon simply MUST come up. Keller does not disappoint, and seems to suggest that because Hitchens is well traveled, he KNOWS his subjects to the bone – apparently forgetting that parachute pundits are perhaps even worse than mere armchair pundits."  For me, and even before his transformation, Hitchens discredited himself with the famous fabrication: how he was sitting in a cafe in Baghdad, and then Abu Nidal stopped and sat down to chat with him.  Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East and Palestinian groups know what a ridiculous lie that was. (thanks Nicholas)