As Campaign Desk noted yesterday, Tim Russert drudged up old news Sunday when he pressed Kerry to stand by his statement that leaders from abroad prefer him to Bush. And with old news comes old mistakes.
One such mistake appeared in a Washington Times editorial printed yesterday that led with Kerry’s appearance on “Meet the Press.” The paper inaccurately transcribed a March remark by Kerry as, “I’ve met with foreign leaders who can’t go out and say this publicly, but boy, they look at you and say ‘You’ve got to win this.” The actual statement, as corrected by Boston Globe reporter Patrick Healy, was, “I’ve met more leaders who …” (Emphasis added.)
What’s most disheartening about this blatant attempt to distort the record is that in the Times’ own reporting they pointed out that they received the Healy e-mail that corrected the record. Yet they have repeatedly failed to pass the accurate information on to their readers.
Recently, Jim Romenesko published a memo from Times managing editor Fran Coombs informing his staff that, “This newspaper has an obligation to its reader to run corrections when we make a mistake. We need to hold ourselves to the same high standards that we expect of those we cover.” He further directed his staff, “All corrections should be run as soon as possible after the mistake is discovered.”
Coombs’ memo notes that “Our failures are so acute, says [the] [Washington] City Paper, that it plans to run corrections for us.” Campaign Desk can’t wait to see who wins this race.
–Thomas Lang
