WashPost issues correction for flagrant Plame-Wilson error

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

Three days after the fact, the paper begins to crawl out of its hidey-hole; let's all remember that TPM/JMM handed them their flashlight. Did I see a posting that the whole Schmidt original article was based on the findings of just three (out of 15 or so) members of the Senate committee?


<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45430-2004Jul12.html>

A July 10 story on a new Senate report on intelligence failures said that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV told his contacts at the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from the African nation of Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran that was interested in making that purchase, but no contract was signed, according to the report.

[boobooday]

1. Mission Accomplished

Right?

Schmidt is to the Washington Post what Judith Miller is to the NY Times.

Are they plants? Who do they really work for?

They certainly don't seem to be journalists.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[enough]

2. Right, one two-sentence paragraph.

Just below two items about olympic trials, and one mis-named website.

CORRECTIONS

Tuesday, July 13, 2004; Page A02

A story in the July 12 Sports section should have indicated that the top four finishers in the men's 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic trials were separated by eight-hundredths of a second.

A story in the July 11 Sports section should have indicated that Katie Hoff won the 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.

The Web Watch column in the July 11 Business section misstated the name of a new business partner of the Evite Web service. The company is TicketWeb, not TicketNow.

A July 10 story on a new Senate report on intelligence failures said that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV told his contacts at the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from the African nation of Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran that was interested in making that purchase, but no contract was signed, according to the report.

snip>

That is the entire correction.

Well, thanks for making it news on DU anyway, sniggles. I never thought they'd do it.

[jobycom]

4. Same paper that claimed Gore took credit for discovering Love Canal

Cece Connaly wrote a story quoting a Gore speech claiming Gore had claimed he discovered Love Canal's problems. Kathleen Seelye for the NYT wrote a similar story, using the exact same misquote. Problem was, Gore had made the speech at a high school, and the students read the stories and raised a fuss. The quote was doctored so badly that it had to be a deliberate collaboration between the two writers.

In response, after a week of slamming Gore on talk shows and the Sunday morning programs as a delusional liar who needed mental assistance, both papers printed minor retractions buried in other stories, as they have done here.

When a paper creates a story that far off the truth, and it has that great an impact, the retraction isn't a technicality, it is a major story in itself. But the WP and the NYT didn't agree. Of course, neither writer was fired, despite being caught collaborating to lie for a specific political agenda. Only black people get fired for lying to the NYT.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

7. one of my all-time favorite corrections ... and they got it wrong!

<http://www.dailyhowler.com/h120799_2.shtml>

Sure enough—here is the hapless Post's sorry effort to "correct" its gruesome error:

THE WASHINGTON POST: A Dec. 1 (1999)article and a Dec. 2 Politics column item about Vice President Gore's involvement in the Love Canal hazardous waste case quoted Gore as saying, "I was the one that started it all." In fact, Gore said, "That was the one that started it all," referring to the congressional hearings on the subject that he called.



But "That was the one that started it all" plainly does not refer to the hearings. Here, once again, is the actual text the Post editor had apparently never seen:

GORE: I called for a congressional investigation and a hearing. I looked around the country for other sites like that. I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal. Had the first hearing on that issue and Toone, Tennessee—that was the one that you didn't hear of. But that was the one that started it all. We passed a major national law to clean up hazardous waste sites. And we had new efforts to stop the practices that ended up poisoning water around the country. We've still got work to do. But we made a huge difference. And it all happened because one high school student got involved.

"That was the one that you didn't hear of" clearly refers to Toone, Tennessee. Gore also includes this element in his account of this matter in Earth in the Balance—Love Canal became famous, Toone didn't (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 12/7/99). "But that was the one that started it all" also, plainly, refers to Toone. ("That was the one that you didn't hear of. But that was the one that started it all." Children could figure this out.)

[jobycom]

8. Children could figure it out. So could adults, if they wanted to.

Knowwhatahmean?

[BeFree]

12. Thanks, sniggles.

Damn... I'd sure feel better with Al Gore as President. Just think how great America would be today...sigh.

Well, we've work to do, eh? Listen up folks, every time ya begin to think negative about Kerry, just remember what America would have been if Al was President, and direct that negative energy toward getting rid of boo!sh.

Instead of daggers at Kerry, stick 'em in the bush...

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Please contact the Post: [e-mail]; an untruth...

of this magnitude requires more than this "correction" in a list of minor corrections.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

5. better yet, buy them a subscription to talkingpointsmemo.com

Oh, whoops ... that's a free site!

Maybe they just don't have time to check out blogworld.

Seriously, though, the next hammer should be that only a distinct minority, including Pat Roberts and two others, signed off on the theory that Wilson in effect "supported" the CIA "conclusion" that WMDs were likely to be in Iraq. I'm trying to track down where I read that. Any help is appreciated.

[Jim__]

6. Whoops - Susan Schmidt gets it wrong - again!

Not that she's not a well-qualified, unbiased reporter.

[MallRat]

9. Steno Sue, WRONG AGAIN!

:bounce:

[spotbird]

10. Hard to imagine that the whole RW world has already

converted this lie to truth.

Oh well, it needs a kick.

[Timefortruth]

11. kick n/t