Patterico's Pontifications

2/2/2017

OOPS! NBC News Breathlessly Attributes to Neil Gorsuch Opinions Written by Someone Else

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:30 am



NBC News:

President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court has been vague about gay marriage and other issues important to the LGBTQ community, but back when he was an undergraduate at Columbia University he opposed military recruiting on campus precisely because it discriminated against gays and lesbians.

“It is an accepted fact that all four branches of the U.S. military discriminate against men and women based on their sexual preferences,” Neil Gorsuch wrote in an opinion piece for the Columbia Daily Spectator that was published in February 1987.

“This kind of discrimination just doesn’t fit in with Freedom of Opportunity and Democracy,” he wrote. “Plain and simple. Unless it’s prepared to hire applicants regardless of race, sex, class, religion, or sexual preference, the military should be denied the use of Columbia facilities to recruit.”

They tweeted it out, too:

Yeah, just one problem. Gorsuch isn’t the one who wrote that.

You can follow their link and see what I mean. In an editing error, when Gorsuch’s op-ed and an op-ed by one Jason C. Myers continued from page 6 on to page 9, the college newspaper put Gorsuch’s name above the continuation of Myers’s piece and vice-versa. If you read each piece from page 6 to page 9, this is patently obvious.

But it’s plain that reported Corky Siemaszko didn’t read the pieces, or he would have noticed that.

Ed Whelan has been whacking NBC over this:

We’ll see how long it takes them to figure it out — and how they handle it when they do.

If they whisk it away, or rewrite it without explaining what they did, I have saved the original NBC story here.

I don’t like using the term “fake news” to describe mistakes, even bad ones — but the longer they leave this up, the more fake it looks.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

40 Responses to “OOPS! NBC News Breathlessly Attributes to Neil Gorsuch Opinions Written by Someone Else”

  1. There had to be some reason why Madcow called him “mainstream”.

    nk (dbc370)

  2. As Fake News goes, this is in the top decile. A reference and everything.

    Perhaps the Russians diddled the headline in order help Trump?

    BobStewartatHome (e8d021)

  3. As of 12:12 PST it looks like they added an “editor’s note” and kinda sorta did a re-write.

    Harkin (470cbb)

  4. Harkin’s right, except being charitable about the “kinda sorta… re-write.” It’s basically a totally different story with a new headline, new opening paragraph, etc.

    Ryan (b16f18)

  5. In the relay race of life, our handoff to the millennials hasn’t gone as well as we might have hoped.

    BobStewartatHome (e8d021)

  6. amazon turdlord jeffy bezos’s wapo had a huge article this morning all about dissing his mama

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  7. “Harkin’s right, except being charitable about the “kinda sorta… re-write.” It’s basically a totally different story with a new headline, new opening paragraph, etc.”

    I was using the term “kinda sorta” as utilized by Theodore Cleaver, which basically means “totally”.

    Harkin (470cbb)

  8. Why do you assume they did it by accident?

    narciso (d1f714)

  9. “I don’t like using the term “fake news” to describe mistakes, even bad ones . . . “

    Performing proper due diligence is a fundamental professional responsibility across a wide range of fields. To many of us, it is simply a part of our workday routine. When one sees a politicized pattern of neglecting this fundamental function, I don’t think the errors qualify as “mistakes” any more than a collision caused by someone deliberately driving recklessly would qualify as an “accident.” Calling the product “fake news” is letting them off easy. Better terms would be calumny, defamation, slander.

    There are many reasons to like the term “fake news,” not the least of which is that it was originally a term used by the Left to attack the right. Turning this pejorative back on the hacks who came up with it has a wonderful symmetry.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  10. This isn’t fake news.

    It’s more like Gateway Pundit.

    Q. Who found this article in the first place? It couldn’t have been found through an online search, because that would have been correct.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  11. Hecwas a hack at the daily news no surprise.

    narciso (d1f714)

  12. Boy, with this and the fake story about the missing bust of MLK in the Oval Office and the wrong story about Trump reversing Obama’s LGBTQ order, you’d think the news media had an agenda or something.

    B.A. DuBois (cb3214)

  13. And… the Twitter links above have gone done the Memory Hole. Well done, NBC!

    B.A. DuBois (cb3214)

  14. Never attribute to incompetency that which can be more fully explained by professional malice.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  15. Harry Reid has left the political scene, but his habit of lying about judges he doesn’t like is being carried on proudly by the MSM’s #fakenews department.

    M Scott Eiland (1edade)

  16. Speaking of the Supreme Court, this is actually a pretty funny article. Lefties concerned and sharing ideas on how to keep 83 year old RBG alive and on the high court until 2020.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Can-she-eat-more-kale-Hordes-of-liberals-want-10903762.php

    elissa (fb919d)

  17. Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story attributed quotes to Neil Gorsuch that were actually written by a another student at the Columbia University newspaper. The newspaper itself issued a correction for their misleading layout.

    new hed –

    As a Student, SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch Held Dim View Of Campus Protesters

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  18. They also claim he started a fascism club in school which the school says was a yearbook joke because everyone called him a fascist for having conservative views.

    NJRob (b2c888)

  19. Good update Mr. Foot.

    Now imagine if NBC had gone to this depth with their vetting of Senator Obama in 2007.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  20. Patrick,

    I don’t like using the term fake news either. The problem is is that the left started it and conservatives have been making them eat it. I asked you on Twitter what would be the preferred term but you didn’t answer. So I ask you since fake news is not accurate, but it is what is being used, what term would you use to describe articles like this?

    Tanny O'Haley (6c8ce4)

  21. Corky Siemaszko

    that’s so cute i just wanna kick it off my porch and let the dogs have it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  22. I think this was probably deliberate – at attempt to plant a seed of doubt in the many Trumpkins who would prefer that the military discriminate on the basis of race, sex, class, religion, or sexual preference.

    Leviticus (c2dcf8)

  23. Not only that. Two positive articles in the Washington Post and even Rachel Maddow praises him. How good can he be, really, if elites like him?

    nk (dbc370)

  24. Obviously NBC should correct the error now that it’s been pointed out, but it seems a bit much to blame them for somebody else’s editing mistake.

    Dave (711345)

  25. Dave, NBC News is full of hyperventillating NeverTrumpers who wanted it to be true.
    That’s why they didn’t bother to actually read it.

    That’s the responsibility of a journalist; to read and confirm before you report it as fact.

    These are the same people who will wait a month until after a domestic terrorist attack before they report that a jihadist was (surprise!) a Muslim.

    It’s the same issue with Time magazine a couple weeks ago with the MLK bust that was allegedly moved out of the Oval Office. They were in such a frenzied hurry to play a game of GOTCHA!, that they didn’t do the leg work to confirm it.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  26. So you are telling me I broke out my brown shirts for nothing?
    This administrations sucks

    steveg (5508fb)

  27. “Gorsuch isn’t the one who wrote that”, I think even he did not write that words, what he will do in the future is more important.

    instagram viewer (cc2b8b)

  28. Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 2/2/2017 @ 6:42 pm

    Dave, NBC News is full of hyperventillating NeverTrumpers who wanted it to be true.

    That’s why they didn’t bother to actually read it.

    They read it.

    They didn’t study the PDF or the printout carefully.

    Maybe some intern found it.

    These are the same people who will wait a month until after a domestic terrorist attack before they report that a jihadist was (surprise!) a Muslim.

    I think the problem is which side has the burden of proof. Where you place the burden of proof is where you really get the double standard.

    Of course, with the attack on the mosque in Montreal, the bias was held by other people, like Fox.

    It was not done by a Moslem. It was done by an anti-immigrant Quebec independence supporter who was a reader of various righ wing – that’s all they said – web sites, and an admirer of Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump, although I suppose, being a Canadian, Donald trump he was not close to number one or two on his list of favorite people.

    It took Donald Trump a few days to telephone Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with condolences.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  29. Shooting at Sunday prayers. Call to Trudeau on Monday. ONE day in your world is “a few days” Sammy?

    elissa (692a2c)

  30. I think this was probably deliberate – at attempt to plant a seed of doubt in the many Trumpkins who would prefer that the military discriminate on the basis of race, sex, class, religion, or sexual preference.

    gfy, Since Truman the US military has been the most egalitarian institution in the nation, despite of the left’s attempts at using them as a social engineering laboratory, not because of them. Especially since the advent of the all volunteer force.

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  31. layers and layers of fact checkers, editors, etc. Wasn’t that why we were supposed to pay attention to major media instead of bloggers?

    Loren (66de82)

  32. I don’t know what “Corky” is short for, but I’m pretty sure it’s not his birth name. His brother, Kazimierz, is professionally known as “Casey Siemaszko,” probably due to the K and Z’s in his name.
    Casey is a character actor who was most widely seen in the Back To The Future trilogy, alongside Billy Zane as part of bully Biff Tannen’s entourage. He also had a juicy role as an outlaw in Young Guns (“I’m a pugilist!”) with Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland. But to me Casey will always be beleaguered teen Jerry Mitchell in the stylish, hilarious, and vastly-underrated 1987 comedy Three O’Clock High. I’ve been thinking about that movie lately because it seems to have inspired the new comedy Fist Fight, which looks like Three O’ Clock High with teachers instead of students.

    L.N. Smithee (ee7b9d)

  33. “Shooting at Sunday prayers. Call to Trudeau on Monday. ONE day in your world is “a few days” Sammy?”

    elissa (692a2c) — 2/3/2017 @ 6:20 am

    elissa… when you’re in the sh1t, reporting from the front lines, I imagine it’s very difficult to keep track of space and time. Leave Sammeh alone!

    Colonel Haiku (5b7649)

  34. #32 I remember Casey as the villainous Curly in Of Mice and Men, directed by Gary Sinise.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  35. Since when is it obligatory to have a bust of MLK or for that matter anybody in the Oval Office if you are President? I certainly would figure each one gets to decorate it however he wants. It is his office, after all. For example; I would have Washington and Reagan perhaps Patton and this one :

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-388DnC55c/WJAewMwvZAI/AAAAAAABekQ/BIkqPFod380J6bNnIgT4u52E3AuXSdS9ACLcB/s1600/obama-memorial.jpg

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  36. Yes but that film looks very lame indeed, speaking of the first squirrel dossier is debunked by Misha Essen in the new York review

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. “Since Truman the US military has been the most egalitarian institution in the nation, despite of the left’s attempts at using them as a social engineering laboratory, not because of them. Especially since the advent of the all volunteer force.”

    – Steve Malynn

    No disagreement here. If you’d bother to read what I actually wrote, I was insulting Trumpkins, not the military.

    Leviticus (efada1)

  38. Levi, since Trump carried the Military vote (to the extent it was not suppressed) not sure who you think you were insulting.

    By the way, is ad hom really your only argument?

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  39. “Shooting at Sunday prayers. Call to Trudeau on Monday. ONE day in your world is “a few days” Sammy?”

    elissa (692a2c) — 2/3/2017 @ 6:20 am

    I should have been more careful about that. I did hear something about a few days, but it was vague.

    But wait – wouldn’t that be Friday prayers?

    It was Sunday night.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-city-mosque-shooting/article33822092/

    As Canadians reeled from the shock of Sunday night’s killings, Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, appeared in a Quebec City court late Monday under police guard.

    I knew I should have checked how long it was between the event and the call. This comes from relying on something critical of Trump I read somewhere. I should have known not to do that.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316878-trump-calls-trudeau-to-express-condolences-over-mosque-shooting Mblockquote> President Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday to express his sympathies for an attack on a Quebec City mosque.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  40. I have to be very careful about anything that sounds like left-wing propaganda. I’m usually more careful. I didn’t take the time to check.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)


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