Marc Ambinder reported this morning that three top diplos scheduled to be Obama’s envoys to global hellholes — Iran, Israel/Palestine, and Afghanistan/Pakistan/India — will be Richard Haass, Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross. He says it’s "confirmed," but I’ve heard otherwise. It appears, particularly with Haass, the chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, that this is premature. Maybe it’ll happen — it’s not like I’ve heard otherwise. But as of right now Ambinder is — to use Colin Powell’s elegant phrase when he had to walk back a statement on North Korea in 2001 — a little forward on his skis. On Holbrooke, though, it’s not like this hasn’t been out there, so on that score at least Ambinder has company.

Another thing about transition reporting in general. Let me pull back the curtain somewhat. This is rumormongering, plain and simple. Speculation passed along three times is counting as fact. Everyone is rushing to scoop everyone else, and it’s not producing solid journalism in many cases. If this reads like I’m singling out Ambinder, an excellent reporter, I don’t mean to. It’s just frustrating to see how much rumor is being passed along as fact, particularly when in certain cases many people on the transition are not privvy to key decisions.

Crossposted to The Streak.