As to be expected from a person who plays a journalist on TV -- a correction more accurately described as a "correction".

With forced ebullience, Rachel Maddow sought to set the record straight on her MSNBC show Monday about a dubious quote from radio host Rush Limbaugh, which Maddow claimed back on June 3 that Limbaugh had once stated. As in, last spring. It's now autumn. In fairness to Maddow, these things take time, especially for those busy providing cover for the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Here's what Maddow said about the incendiary quote, which she cited in June without attribution. You know, as required by actual news organizations --

MADDOW: And finally, a quote falsely attributed to talk show host Rush Limbaugh recently resurfaced during the debate over whether or not he should or would be part of a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams football team. On June 3 as I was reporting on opposition to then-Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, I was among the people who erroneously referred to the quote as if Mr. Limbaugh had said it. To set the record straight, Rush Limbaugh apparently never said that Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin should receive the Medal of Honor and I was in error when we reported that he had. Mea culpa.

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At this point any legitimate journalist ends the correction, although in this example Maddow should also apologize. As you can see from what Maddow said June 3, described here by NewsBusters blogger D.S. Hube, Maddow not only stated as fact that Limbaugh made the remark, she sanctimoniously editorialized about it --

MADDOW: When you get called racist by the guy who said the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. should get the Medal of Honor, consider yourself honored. Also, nauseated.

Instead of taking the honorable route of correcting the record and expressing regret for the error, and for piling on about it, Maddow trotted out several "verifiable" quotes from Limbaugh in the form of audio clips -- Limbaugh referring to "Hafrican American" actress Halle Berry, Americans being urged to support Obama "because his father was black," Obama wanting the same health care "he had in Kenya," and that Obama's "entire economic program" consists of "reparations."

In other words, just because I can't verify what I told you Limbaugh said about King assassin James Earl Ray, doesn't mean Limbaugh isn't racist -- see?!

To this observer's ears, what Limbaugh said in each instance wasn't racist, it was provocative -- as radio hosts are wont to be. Unless broadcasting from the right side of the dial, in which case they'll be derided by liberals as racist, regardless of what they've actually said. And if what is stated won't pass muster as inarguably racist, reverse racists like Maddow will rely on fiction to fill the void.