A "he said," "she said" highlight and lowlight

Media Matters flags a terrible example of "he said," "she said" journalism in this Washington Post story:

The Washington Post uncritically quoted a voter's assertion -- apparently referring to a chain email containing a photograph of Sen. Barack Obama standing, but without his hand over his heart -- that "[f]rom what I can tell, if he becomes president he will refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance."

Would the Post reprint someone saying the sun rotates around the earth without saying the claim is false? What's especially ridiculous, as Media Matters points out, is that the Post's fact checker blog already debunked the Obama Pledge of Allegiance myth.

On the upside, however, the New York Times has finally called John McCain on his distortions of Democratic health care plans -- the lede of the "Check Point" feature is remarkably unhedged for political coverage in a major American newspaper:

Senator John McCain has been repeatedly suggesting that his Democratic rivals are proposing a single-payer, or even a nationalized health care system along the lines of those in countries like Canada and Britain.

The suggestion is incorrect.