EXPOSING THEMSELVES Even before 20/20's report last week, not everyone ...

MSELVES Even before 20/20's report last week, not everyone believed that Matthew Shepard was the victim of gay bashing. Of course, we won't include all the good lefty fundraisers and artists who rushed to capitalize on the gay man's corpse. They probably didn't believe it, either, but at least they had a financial motivation to perpetuate the lie.

Meanwhile, intelligent human beings always found it obvious that Shepard's sexuality didn't have anything to do with his murder. That's why there's a bigger story behind 20/20's recent big story about how the celebrated hate crime was, in fact, not a hate crime at all.

20/20 reporter Elizabeth Vargas was really just practicing a popular new low in journalism. As proof that there's no honor among unethical mainstream reporters, who are now happy to exploit their comrades' reliable leftist bias as a chance to create false scoops.

Consider how NBC broke a particularly absurd non-story in June of last year. ABC had reported that the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital was a staged event, with American forces using excessive force despite knowing they would face no opposition. The BBC even entertained reports that Lynch's rescuers fired off blanks to create false drama for purposes of propaganda.

Only the mainstream media could believe something that goofy. People who weren't busy spewing lies against the war knew that there was no way that U.S. forces would go into a combat situation with blanks-especially given the Islamic tendency for hiding their worst killers in hospitals and mosques.

NBC's Jim Avila scored an easy scoop by disproving the idiotic reporting of ABC and the BBC. Big deal. He might as well have exposed false reporting from the Weekly World News or 60 Minutes. It was a cheap stab for credibility for NBC-just like when they would later refuse to join CNN, ABC and CBS in cooperating with the Kerry campaign by refusing to call Ohio for Bush this past election night.

Still, Katie Couric would be on Today one month later with Lynch's doctor, using the interview to perpetuate claims that Lynch's rescue was staged, in Couric's words, to "increase enthusiasm and support of the war." Consider that to be NBC's token sign of media solidarity.

In that same spirit, 20/20 showed the followers of Rev. Fred Phelps protesting Shepard's funeral with their usual "God Hates Fags" signs. Vargas dutifully pretended that Phelps' brigade represents some kind of mainstream movement. Anyway, now we know why Dan Rather is staying on at CBS as an investigative reporter. Next year, he'll expose how Democratic activists attempted to use fake National Guard documents to influence the 2004 election.