At the Washington Post, Jefferson Morley sneers at the suggestions that photographs were staged at Qana for propaganda purposes, and compares the issue to 9/11 conspiracy theories: The Qana Conspiracy Theory.

Because we all know that Hizballah would never exploit the deaths of civilians for propaganda purposes, and if you suspect they might, you’re obviously nuts.

Morley doesn’t bother to actually address any of the facts raised by those questioning the Qana photos, of course. But he would be well-advised to do a little research before echoing the talking points of the lefty blogosphere, so that he doesn’t embarrass himself like this:

As Hezbollah wins support throughout the Middle East in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike that killed at least 57 Lebanese civilians over the weekend, an alternative view of the attack is emerging in blogs — that the incident was actually staged by Hezbollah.

Even Lebanese sources now admit the death toll at Qana was not 57, but 28. And the Red Cross first revealed the drastically lower number on Sunday.

But bickering over refrigerated vans and wire service time stamps and body counts obscures the real issue: the insidious manipulation of Western sentimentality by the Islamic supremacist gang known as Hizballah, and the de facto complicity of Western media in the scam.

More responses to Morley:
The American Thinker
The Real Ugly American
The Strata-Sphere: Was Qana Staged?

UPDATE at 8/3/06 2:35:49 pm:

Augean Stables dissects the idiotic Daily Kos version of this smear: The “Left” Takes on the Qana Affair: Fisking the Daily Kos.