Patterico's Pontifications

10/30/2005

WSJ Needs to Correct Its Correction

Filed under: Media Bias,War — Patterico @ 8:42 am



The Wall Street Journal can’t get the Joe Wilson/Niger story right — even in a correction. Barcepundit has the details.

6 Responses to “WSJ Needs to Correct Its Correction”

  1. It isn’t just the WSJ (or the LA Times) that keeps making this mistake. So did Walter Pincus of the Washington Post last Sunday on NPR’s Weekend Edtion and then again in the Post, as I discussed here.
    (The Post has corrected the Niger error, but not more important mistakes; so far I have not heard a corection on NPR.)

    The persistence of this error is amazing, because it has been corrected so many times. Nonetheless it still escaped Pincus, Dana Milbank, at least one editor at the Washington Post, and the substitute host at NPR. Along with, I suspect, thousands of other journalists.

    Jim Miller (d88cae)

  2. Relax Jim,

    There aren’t ever going to be nearly enough corrections to overcome the blatant misrepresentation. MSM has zero incentive to get it right, and every reason to distort the actual record in order to bash Bush, and they aren’t going to let a little thing like truthful reporting get in the way. No, our Watchdogs of Democracy are fully aware of exactly what they’re doing, and they don’t care one little bit if it violates every standard of their profession.

    MSM says, “Wilson’s central assertion — disputing President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger — has been validated by postwar weapons inspections. And his charge that the administration exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq has proved potent.

    Heavy stuff. See, if you take MSM at their word, President Bush sold us a bill of goods. Tricked us into war. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

    However if you examine what GWB actually said you get a different take: GWB said, “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

    That’s the rub, and it’s a little problematic for MSM. If they report what President Bush said, they can’t gloss over Joe Wilson’s inconsistencies. And, the MSM is desperately willing to take a dive, if by doing so they can trash GWB, or Scooter Libby, or someone, anyone, associated with the White House. Joe Wilson’s tall tale, flawed as it is, is what MSM has to work with. So, that’s their story, and they’re stickin’ to it.

    What we have here is virtually an entire profession chomping at the bit to abandon all pretense of integrity if only they could get GWB’s scalp, or at least take a bite out of his rear end. Yep, the once respected Fourth Estate has reduced itself to little more than a pack of viscous snarling dogs, out for blood. So, I wouldn’t wait around for too many “corrections.”

    Black Jack (ee9fe2)

  3. The mistake is hardly worth mentioning anymore. It has become a generalization that does not suffer by its unfortunate breadth. Are you saying that what Bush said was true if he said Africa rather than Niger?

    Neil J. Lehto (77bed1)

  4. I guess you don’t care too much about the touted reporterly accuracy. Journalists are lazy and stupid.

    TCO (dc7251)

  5. Are you saying that what Bush said was true if he said Africa rather than Niger?

    Quite possibly, if the British intelligence on which he relied related to an attempt to purchase uranium elsewhere in Africa, e.g., Congo (as Barcepundit claims). A more important distinction is “Bush alleged X,” which is not quite true, vs. “Bush alleged that the Brits have learned X, which is.

    Xrlq (428dfd)

  6. WHY ISN’T JOE WILSON BEING PROSECUTED FOR LYING TO CONGRESS??

    WHY HASN’T ANYONE AT THE CIA BEEN FIRED FOR LETTING VALERIE PLAME SEND JOE WILSON (her house husband!) TO NIGER – WITHOUT HIM EVEN SIGNING AN AGREEMENT NOT TO DISCLOSE HIS CIA MISSION?!

    WHY IS NO ONE – NO ONE – ASKING THESE QUESTIONS?

    DOES THE MSM HAVE US ALL HYPNOTIZED??

    demosthenes (5ba388)


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