Late last month, WaPo's Ian Shapira accused Gawker of ripping off his story about a pricey consultant: "Gawker's version of my story, headlined " 'Generational Consultant' Holds America's Fakest Job," begins by telling its readers to "Meet Anne Loehr" -- with a link to my story but no direct mention of The Post."

The fallout that ensued was tremendous. A few web-only writers went after Gawker, but even more argued that at least Gawker gave credit, whereas newspapers, television stations, and other old media frequently don't when they re-report a story.

Well, CNN recently did to criminal justice reporter Radley Balko, who lives in Northern Virginia, what Gawker supposedly did to Shapira, except it failed to give any credit where much credit was due.

Read More "Radley Balko Comments on CNN’s Unattributed Use of His Reporting" »

Kudos to CNN for leading its Obama Beer Summit story with who drank what instead of who said what. There's a special place in hell for people who pander. Also, did you know Obama had another meeting yesterday, with Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo? Of course not.

While we're on the topic of elevating abusive cops above world leaders, I've got two more candidates for future beer summits--and one of 'em's local!

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: We Need Another Beer Summit" »

Key line: "In those instances where you call it 'trouble,' it’s been other people who have done that."

At this moment, Dr. Gridlock is in the vanguard of Washington Post coverage of this afternoon's train mishap in Northeast D.C. The item credits WJLA-TV and CNN for key facts on the accident.

Here's one commenter from the washingtonpost.com on the matter:

How is the Washington Post being scooped about a potentially serious metro rail collision? This happened about 45 minutes ago, and it's still in little print at the bottom of the Post web page. Come on guys. Surely you haven't all taken the buy out?