EASON JORDAN, MCCARTHYISM, AND PULLING PUNCHES: All discussed over at GlennReynolds.com.

And here’s an amusing summary of the reaction in some quarters:

Steve Lovelady, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review Daily Web site, blasted Jordan’s Internet critics in an e-mail to New York University professor Jay Rosen’s blog PressThink: “The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail.”

Also on Rosen’s site, reader William Boykin fumed: “Jordan has just been tire-necklaced by a bloodthirsty group of utopian, bible-thumping knuckledraggers that believe themselves to be bloggers but are really just a street gang.” And these unhinged heavy-breathers accuse bloggers of being a lynch mob?

The ad hominem hysterics of Jordan’s defenders stand in stark contrast to the way the vast majority of bloggers approached the search for truth in this matter. Veteran journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis (buzzmachine.com) got it right when he said on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday: “We didn’t want his head — most of us didn’t. We wanted the truth.” We’re still waiting.

It was Jordan who tossed out reckless remarks about American troops deliberately targeting journalists. It was bloggers, starting with American businessman and Davos eyewitness Rony Abovitz, who asked that Jordan back up his bombshell assertion with facts.

Demanding facts — the most unforgivable act of all . . . . (Emph. added)