Well I'm glad they finally got that straightened out!

These are not good days for CNN. First Eason Jordan, now this:

The network finally retracted its story "that the U.S. military used nerve gas in a mission to kill American defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War."

CNN's official statement read, in part:

"We acknowledge serious faults in the use of sources who provided NewsStand with the original reports and therefore retract the Tailwind story.

"We apologize to our viewers and to our colleagues at Time for this mistake.

"CNN owes a special apology to the personnel involved in Operation Tailwind, both the soldiers on the ground and the U.S. Air Force pilots and U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilots who were involved in this action.

"CNN's system of journalistic checks and balances, which has served CNN exceptionally well in the past, failed in this case.

"The fault lies with the editors, producers and reporters and executives responsible for the report, the program and its contents.

"We are taking vigorous steps to strengthen our internal procedures to assure that mistakes of this type do not occur in the future."

First the NYT, then CBS, now CNN -- the times they are a'changin'.