In its lead story in this morning’s paper, The New York Times follows President Bush on the campaign trail to Chillicothe, Ohio, where, reporters Richard W. Stevenson and David M. Halbfinger tell us, he “leveled one of his strongest attacks on Senator John Kerry’s position on Iraq.”
Stevenson and Halbfinger got that right. But after that, it’s all downhill.
After some diversionary throat-clearing, the two reporters return to the topic at hand in the sixth paragraph of their story, quoting the incendiary accusation that Bush had leveled at Kerry: “‘One thing about Senator Kerry’s position is clear,’ Mr. Bush told a rally here. ‘If he had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power and would still be a threat to the security of America and the world.'”
Since we had never heard Kerry or any of his surrogates say that if he had his way, Hussein would still be in power, and since no evidence has yet to surface that in the months leading up to the war Hussein was either a “threat to the security of America” or that of the world, our ears perked up. We read on, looking for two things: a Times paragraph pointing out that discrepancy, and a response to Bush’s attack from the Kerry camp.
And on … and on … and on … over to the continuation of the story on page A12 … down column one … down column two … down column three … and down column four, right to the end of the story, 28 paragraphs in all.
The Times’ fact-check of Bush’s startling assertion never came. And the Times’ report on the Kerry campaign’s response didn’t come until paragraphs 27 and 28.
To wit:
Responding to Mr. Bush’s suggestion that Mr. Kerry would have left Mr. Hussein in place, a Kerry spokesman, Phil Singer, said the president has “absolutely crossed the line.”
He compared Mr. Bush’s statement to one made this week by Vice President Dick Cheney, who said the “wrong choice” in November could leave the United States more likely to “get hit again” by terrorists.
Our job is not to monitor the candidates, it’s to monitor the press. And in our book, it’s failed reporting and editing like this that has “absolutely crossed the line.”
–Steve Lovelady
Steve Lovelady was editor of CJR Daily.