The Atlantic magazine’s website reported what would have been a surprising bit of news. “Condoleezza Rice Blames Georgian Leader for War With Russia,” the headline for Joshua Kucera’s article reads. The sub-headline states: “The former secretary of state contradicts the view, held by many U.S. Republicans, that Russia began the 2008 war.” And the author writes, “Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Georgian President Saakashvili alienated potential NATO allies by ‘letting the Russians provoke him’ into starting a war over South Ossetia.” Indeed, the surprise in Kucera’s article is that it is completely wrong, and yet the Atlantic published it anyway.

“It’s outrageous,” Condoleezza Rice says of the Atlantic story. “The idea that I would blame the Georgians couldn’t be further from the truth.”