Jill Carroll, like any good journalist, undoubtedly is a little uncomfortable with all the attention she’s getting. Reporters like to be the byline, not the story.

But this kind of discomfort is a lot better then what the young freelance journalist endured for the past three months, while she was in the clutches of some very bad people in Iraq.

On her last day as a captive, Carroll’s terrorist captors intimidated her into serving propaganda purposes she disavowed as soon as she was loose.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, who knows a thing or two about being a captive, was among those praising Carroll last weekend and authoritatively excusing whatever she said or did under very threatening circumstances.

“We are glad she’s home,” McCain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We understand when you’re held a captive in that situation that you do things under duress. God bless her, and we’re glad she’s home.”

To the point, Caroll explained what happened in a statement released by her editor at the Christian Science Monitor: “During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video. They told me they would let me go if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. I agreed.

“Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not. The people who kidnapped me and murdered Allan Enwiya (her Iraqi translator, who was killed during the abduction) are criminals, at best.”

War turns some people into heroes and exposes some for the cowards they are.

Jill Carroll’s case is exposing others as fools.

For the amazing thing about her story is her need to explain herself — after being captured by terrorists then slandered by Web loggers who tortured her reputation before she even made it home.

As Rick Moran wrote on RightWingNuthouse.com:

“I will not name names nor link to bloggers who thought the worst of Miss Carroll. They and their readers know who they are and I trust they will be suitably chastised. And if they have an ounce of integrity, they will write a public apology.

“But after the sackcloth has been worn and the ashes spread, it might be a good idea to step back and see what the hell is going on here.

“The speed and ferocity with which people piled on Miss Carroll for not immediately disavowing her propaganda statement as well as her first statements to the press, which seemed to give her brutal captors a pass, reminded me of the jaw-dropping way the left pounced on the administration in the immediate … aftermath of Katrina. The point isn’t to bash the left here but to highlight a problem with blogs that seems to be presenting itself with alarming regularity.

“In people’s haste to be first, or different, or just plain ornery and contrary (all the better to get links and readers) a culture of  ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ has arisen in the blogosphere that quite frankly, is proving every bad thing that the MSM has been saying about blogs from the beginning.”

For the uninitiated, MSM means Mainstream Media.  Written, edited, edited again, published.

As the magnanimous Carroll said:

“I want to be judged as a journalist, not as a hostage. I remain as committed as ever to fairness and accuracy — to discovering the truth — and so I will not engage in polemics.”

This is as good a place as any for the blogosphere to start paying its dues and examining, or developing, its conscience.