Leaving the Anchor Desk, Its Greatest Generation (Talking Points - cont'd )

Washington Post ^ | 04/04/05 | Howard Kurtz

[Pikamax]

Talking Points (Cont'd)

The flap about a Washington Post report on an unsigned strategy memo in the Terri Schiavo case, which the paper said was "distributed to Republican senators," isn't going away.

It turns out that The Post's news service put out an early version of the March 20 story -- published by numerous other papers -- that said the talking points, which touted the Schiavo case as a political opportunity, were "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders." GOP congressional leaders say they never saw the document, whose author remains unknown. Post reporter Mike Allen, who was unaware the news service had distributed the earlier version, said last week that the paper was careful not to say it was "a Republican memo."

Kate Carlisle, the news service's managing editor, says Allen's report was sent out at 9:07 the night before and "we weren't notified that changes had been made to the story after we got it." Despite criticism from bloggers, and Allen's request for a correction, Carlisle said no correction was warranted. Late Friday, the news service sent out an "advisory" saying: "The version of the article published by the paper did not specify the authorship and noted that the memo was unsigned. The authorship remains unknown." The advisory did not retract the assertion that "party leaders" had given out the memo.

[add925]

"The memo was REAL! I'm telling you, those Republicans are conspiring!"

Get all the facts tonight on Kook to Kook AM.

/sarcasm...and my apologies to Art Bell.

[cvq3842]

Thanks for posting. Certainly, a correction is in order. Heck, Bush and/or Condi rushed to "correct" the yellowcake in Niger story when it wasn't even false!

[pookie18]

Thanks...will rerun in Today's Toons 04/05/05.