Posted on 06/10/2011 9:21:49 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In a highly charged political environment, every news story is scrutinized for inaccuracies and signs of bias. Even an innocent mistake can appear to take on sinister dimensions.
That’s what happened to POLITICO last night, when the news organization published an opinion column about Sarah Palin that included the textual equivalent of a cartoon thought-bubble.
The authors of the piece, Paul Goldman and Mark J. Rozell, had crafted a paragraph to try to get at what Palin might be thinking. In their original version, they used quotation marks around what they imagined to be Palin’s thought – a common convention in column writing.
Palin’s bus tour had some of the hallmarks of a primal scream: “I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else.” Looking at it through her eyes, she has a point.
The problem came during the editing process, when “she said” was mistakenly added to the story -- making it seem, incorrectly, that the authors were suggesting that Palin had uttered these words.
Shortly after the piece went up at 9:48 p.m., Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, posted a statement on its website slamming POLITICO for fabricating quotes.
Setting the Record Straight: About False Quotes Attributed to Governor Palin
An absurd opinion piece in Politico includes a quote attributed to Governor Palin that is a total fabrication and yet is deliberately written to appear as if it is a legitimate direct quote. By any standard this is unacceptable even for an opinion piece. This puts us in mind of a real quote of something Governor Palin actually did once say to the media: “Quit making stuff up.”
Palin tweeted it on her personal Twitter account....
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I don’t believe that quotes has ever meant anything other than a literal quotation (boy did we F that one up), not even when the ideas are correct but paraphrased (but we are professionals and live by our own rules).
THAT is how you do “the textual equivalent of a cartoon thought-bubble”.
At least they have now publicly identified their opinion piece as the textual equivalent a cartoon.
When two different people write the same opinion piece it's bound to be muddled, especially when one guy is sitting on the other guy's lap as they share the keyboard.
There's a difference between inaccuracies and make up a quote out of thin air. They're trying to explain it away by lying some more. Too late, politico!
An aside...Since Politico, purportedly, made the changes to the article in question how can we be sure that the words in this article are in fact Keach's thoughts and not some editor's?
How is anything they ever put out again supposed to be trusted if they edit submitted articles as they see fit?
Nobody here blamed bachmann for THIS. This was pure politico. bachmann caught it for hirng ed rollins as her pit bull who went on a public attack of Sarah Palin...which, BTW, she has refused to retract or dispute. So much for bachmann.
Pretty likely since it was about politics and it definitely started the dirt flying.
It's hard to untangle a lying mess by using more lies.
Just print the damn truth, but that doesn't serve their agenda.
Palin’s bus tour had some of the hallmarks of a primal scream: “I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else.” Looking at it through her eyes, she has a point.
The authors are imagining a "primal scream" ...and then agreeing with their own imaginations! - - "she has a point".
It was that same phrase - - in addition to the quote marks - - which no doubt led some junior editor to add the "she said" to the paragraph.
No matter how you cut it, this was one very sloppy publication.
I take it you are one of them. Trust your media sources not.
Play "Likely Suspect"! See #29.
There are only seven editors there.
Would you trust your own ears and eyes? Would you trust Mark Steyn? she did it. Pure and simple. Backstabbed Palin and there is nothing she can do about it now. Me? I said nothing for 24 hours after she did it. Thought she would clarify. She hid and refuses to answer any questions about it. I didn’t throw her under no bus. She committed bussacide.
Google Bachmann Palin and tell me the results. The left is creating an early catfight. You fall for it.
Their explanation fits with how I read the non-quote it this morning. It was a case of foolish writing, an attempt to be clever and terrible editing. The “quote” didn’t sound like Palin’s voice so I never took the quote as literal fact.
“Fake, but accurate” I tells you!
THE LEFT AND THE RINO ELITE BULT BACHMANN UP TO WHERE SHE BELIEVED HER OWN HYPE. SAY WHAT YOU WILL. BACHMANN TOOK THE BAIT, NOT ME. BACHMANN TOOK THE SHOT. NOT ME. BACHMANN HIRED A HIT MAN. NOT ME. NACHMANN LOSES. SHE FELL FOR IT. NOT ME. GOOGLE IT YOURSELF.
And ‘scuse the caps. didn’t realize they were on and I ain’t going to repeat myself.
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