The Correct Way to Avoid Mistakes
Can I amend my “Outside the Tent” op-ed? I’d like to add one more idea for how the L.A. Times can avoid printing falsehoods: don’t print letters from Frank Ferrone of El Cajon. Here is Mr. Ferrone’s effort from today:
Re “The Correct Way to Fix Mistakes,” Opinion, Feb. 13: Patrick Frey is just another run-of-the-mill right-wing blogger who enjoys hunting squirrels while 500-pound gorillas bounce about the forest.
His credibility will increase a hundredfold when he directs his “let’s tell the truth column” toward President Bush and his neocon brigade.
They told us day after day that a war of choice against Iraq was necessary because Iraq was a) in possession of weapons of mass destruction, b) creating a nuclear capability, c) had links to Al Qaeda and d) was involved in the 9/11 attacks. All falsehoods!
Bush had his war — nearly 1,500 American military personnel have been killed, more than 10,000 have been wounded and only God knows how many innocent Iraqi men, women and children have been sacrificed by the president’s war.
Here is an entire buffet table set for Frey to pontificate on “The Correct Way to Fix Mistakes.”
Frank Ferrone
El Cajon
Ferrone calls it a “falsehood” that there were links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. Wrong. As 9/11 Commissioner Lee Hamilton said on Hardball: “There are all kinds of ties. There are all kinds of connections.” (See here and here for similar statements from various members of the 9/11 Commission.)
Ferrone also claims that, “day after day,” the Bush Administration claimed that Iraq “was involved in the 9/11 attacks.” Wrong again! As 9/11 Commissioner Lehman said on “Meet the Press”: “The Bush administration has never said that [Iraq] participated in the 9/11 attack.”
Perhaps Ferrone was fooled by the faulty coverage of these stories by the L.A. Times, as described here and here.
It is ironic (to say the least) for The Times to print a letter that attacks my piece about false assertions in the L.A. Times — even as that same letter makes false assertions in the L.A. Times. It is even more ironic if those false assertions are based on factually inaccurate stories from the L.A. Times — the very same paper whose consistent ideological errors Ferrone appears to find so untroubling.
I knew it would take a thick skin to have an article published in a major newspaper. But it’s easy to have a thick skin when “criticism” is this far off the mark.
Patrick:
Us run-of-the-mill bloggers can attest to the fact that you are anything but run-of-the-mill.
steve sturm (a27d61) — 2/16/2005 @ 6:40 pmCalling me “run-of-the-mill” . . . another falsehood!
Patterico (756436) — 2/16/2005 @ 6:42 pmSeems like you attract trolls in print, too.
I thought your op-ed was very reasonable.
I don’t recall that you raised the issues attacked by Mr. Ferrone of El Cajon, I thought you had limited yourself to provable falsehoods. Maybe I missed something…
EagleSpeak (0d84c2) — 2/16/2005 @ 6:43 pmThe letter completely fails to address the arguments I actually made in the piece.
Patterico (756436) — 2/16/2005 @ 6:53 pmSee, Patterico, that’s the cool thing about being a blogger (as you well know): you can always ‘revise and extend’ your remarks.
Why is it that, in some people’s minds, every time any charge (provable in this case) is brought against a newspaper, the spittle-flecked moonbats have to bellow, “Bush’s War! Bush’s War!”
Steve
Steve Bragg (6d5f21) — 2/16/2005 @ 7:13 pmDOUBLE TOOTHPICKS
Oops–delete “in some people’s minds”–uh, I was going someplace else with that comment and forgot to erase that.
Steve Bragg (6d5f21) — 2/16/2005 @ 7:14 pmRemember the old adage: Don’t pick fights with those who buy ink by the barrel. – Samuel Clemens [Mark Twain]
The MSM has its ways to get back at you….. and they did….
Keep up the good work, Patrick.
Flap
Flap (ef71f8) — 2/16/2005 @ 8:20 pmYep. Garbage in garbage out. Frank Ferrone of El Cajon used the LA Times as the source of his information.
Ladainian (91b3b2) — 2/17/2005 @ 1:37 amThe multiple ironies are hilarious indeed. I hear Ferrone’s incorrect assertions all over the place, and the facts just never seem to matter. Keep up the great work–I thought your LA Times column was great, and I hope you get the chance to do it again!
Tom Carter (a67db1) — 2/17/2005 @ 5:46 amI see the Times today ran an editorial making fun of Kaus’ column. I wonder how long it will be until they make fun of yours (“Banner headline: spelling error in last article”).
Kevin Murphy (6a7945) — 2/17/2005 @ 9:35 amAh, you could practically see the spittle spraying from that letter. I’ve been amazed how many people actually believe that Bush said there was an imminent danger, when he said the reverse in his State Of The Union speech. I suppose if they are reading this contention in the newspapers that startling anomaly is explained.
I have the horrible feeling you’ll eventually bulldoze me into reading the LA Times. Whimper.
MaxedOutMama (30faed) — 2/17/2005 @ 8:11 pmThe LA Times prints-for the most part-the dumbest letters that could posibly be found in any metropolitan news paper. They are often nothing more then bumper stickers. I sense they represent the audience the Times believes represent their readers: dumb and gullible. Which fits their view of themseslves vis-a-vis the world: we’re smart-your dumb. It also comforts them that their message is getting through.
kent (c79b49) — 2/18/2005 @ 10:31 amIt is ironic (to say the least) for The Times to print a letter that attacks my piece about false assertions in the L.A. Times – even as that same letter makes false assertions in the L.A. Times. It is even more ironic if those false assertions are based on factually inaccurate stories from the L.A. Times – the very same paper whose consistent ideological errors Ferrone appears to find so untroubling.
Now that’s what I call a “closed ecology” — not one calorie of error, mischaracterization, or falsehood wasted.
–furious.
furious_a (3681f5) — 2/18/2005 @ 3:33 pmThe price of fame… idiots who latch on to anything.
Hugo (4f8987) — 2/18/2005 @ 10:04 pmKeep at it! I appreciate your hard efforts!