McClatchy admits the Kawazz murder story was a hoax but doesn't explain why it published the story with so little collaboration

On Monday 11/26, McClatchy published a report indicating 11 members of a journalist's family had been slain in Baghdad. By Wednesday the story completely fell apart. Bloggers were poking holes in the story. Also on Wednesday Reporters Without Borders was calling the incident a "fabrication." The BBC published a report on Wednesday that the supposedly murdered family members were all live.

No update from McClatchy until Friday, when McClatchy wrote that the whole thing was a fabrication. (Terrible timing for McClatchy, since everybody else had known it a day or more earlier.)

But why did McClatchy print this story in the first place?

There were plenty of reasons McClatchy should have been suspicious of the report. Gateway Pundit lists the reasons:

The Iraqi Interior Ministry emphatically said,"Kawwaz is lying."** The police in Baghdad have not confirmed the attack.** Talisman Gate reported that Al-Iraqiyya TV has "categorically dismissed reports over the murder of Dhia al-Kawwaz's family in Sha'ab City."