How can you tell they're lying? Their lips are moving.

I think we can all agree that it is a bad thing when an administration leaks information that is blatantly false in an effort to damage its political opponents. Yes? (Actually, many liberals/progressives might not agree with that statement, but we'll move on, anyway.) But I think we can definitely all agree that it is a bad thing when an administration leaks information that is blatantly false in an effort to damage its political opponents and gets caught lying:

The White House and Senate Democrats may need a refresher course on how to leak a juicy story.
The White House today was forced to backtrack on a rumor Obama administration officials started about a Republican House leader who purportedly insulted President Obama to his face, telling the president, “I cannot even stand to look at you.”
Turns out, it never happened. How do we know?
The same White House that was responsible for starting the buzz now says there was a “miscommunication” and a “misunderstanding.”

Yeah, same old story: lying pieces of shit tell a lie to smear their opponents, somebody figures out it was a lie, lying pieces of shit say, "Hey, miscommunication." Media says, "Cool." Unless the lying piece of shit is a Republican which, in this case, he wasn't.