What's missing from this story, which is hilarious all around.
... the answer, of course, is Zengerle's publishing of a fake email which was the closest thing to any actual support for his brilliant notion, and the ethics of The New Republic which lets sources provide them with bullshit information.
My guess is TNR wouldn't out the source because it would prove incredibly embarrassing to them. Still, nice work getting the Boston Globe to overlook that rather important feature.
(Also missing, of course, are any actual examples of the claimed death threats. It's certainly possible that Zengerle got them, but everyone always claims they get them whenever bloggers get annoyed at their dishonesty and nobody ever seems to produce them. Personally I'd suggest forwarding them to the FBI and having people arrested. Oddly that never seems to happen either.)
