Posted on 10/06/2005 10:13:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
NEW YORK A George Will column leaked to a blogger has caused the Washington Post Writers Group to rethink the advisory it includes with content it syndicates.
WPWG sent the column -- which sharply criticized President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court -- to Will's 450-plus clients on Tuesday. The advisory said the column was "for immediate release," which has traditionally meant "for immediate release" in the next print edition -- in this case, Wednesday's paper.
But the column was posted late Tuesday afternoon on the ConfirmThem.com blog under the words: "I don't know if this is an advance copy of George Will's next column (I can’t find it online right now), but it was sent to me by someone who works for a major newspaper and I wanted to share it with y'all right away." Then the column started appearing all over the Web, and has been widely quoted since.
"There was nothing we could do [to halt the online spread] that night," said Alan Shearer, editorial director and general manager of WPWG.
But Shearer was determined to do something the next day. He sent a Wednesday e-mail to all of Will's clients reminding them not to break a column's embargo date and not to send a column to another media outlet, such as a blog.
Even though he hadn't contacted ConfirmThem.com, Shearer said he soon received an e-mail from that blog offering an apology and saying it hadn't realized it was doing something wrong. But when Shearer asked which "major newspaper" leaked the column, the blog wouldn't name it.
Shearer -- realizing the potentially confusing nature of the "immediate release" advisory, which dates back to the pre-Web days of the 1970s -- sent a second Wednesday e-mail to Will's clients saying WPWG was thinking of a way to re-word the advisory. Shearer doesn't yet know what the new advisory will be, but said it will be changed soon.
Whatever the confusion about "immediate release," said Shearer, "we never gave permission to send a column to another publication -- and we consider a blog another publication."
Shearer also wouldn't want clients to put a Will column on their online editions before it runs in their print editions. "You want the impact to be in your newspaper," he said.
In the column -- headlined "Can This Nomination Be Justified?" -- Will wrote that it's "not important that [Miers] be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court's tasks. The president's 'argument' for her amounts to: Trust me. There is no reason to...."
The conservative commentator added that Bush has "neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution" and "the president has forfeited his right to be trusted as a custodian of the Constitution." The column ended with this question: "For this we need a conservative president?" -- with the word conservative in italics.
Shearer said by the time he read that last line, "I knew the column would have an impact." The WPWG executive told E&P Online he saw at least 300 Wednesday e-mails reacting to Will's column from conservatives, liberals, and people who didn't identify their political affiliation. "People were agreeing with the column 50 to 1," said Shearer.
He added that, periodically, "George Will comes up with surprising positions...and crystallizes conservative thinking" in his column. The Miers piece, said Shearer, was an example of that -- as was a February 1974 column Will wrote saying conservatives should consider the possibility of President Nixon being removed from office.
CYA article now that damage is done. Will made a mistake in 1974 (calling for Nixon to resign and empowering the DUmocrats) and the latest article proves he hasn't grown since.
Sure there is. You just stamped the article "For Immediate Release". Having worked in the broadcast industry, I've seen plenty of examples where the AP embargoes a story with a specific time and date to release the public for public consumption.
It's a great column, and it is appropriate that the president be challenged when he throws a low-ball and says "trust me." Maybe W spent too much time with Dan Quail when Pops was President.
It's "Quayle". Now spell "potatoe".
...hee, hee, hee....
You got me...thanks!
Using the nomination to snipe at Bush is a fine example of LOW-BALL journalism. I see it in the same light as Ann Coulter's call for Bush's impeachment. Both are weak-kneed pundits throwing cheap shots at the President so they can sell their tripe to DUmocrats and bitter McCain supporters.
This is how a mostly ignored conservative gets really really noticed by the MSM. Big woop.
"Using the nomination to snipe at Bush is a fine example of LOW-BALL journalism."
I'm not a journalist; I missed Coulter's reaction, but I really did agree with George Will based on the soundness of his arguments. But, as a matter of fact, I don't trust anybody except perhaps my wife and my dad. After living in the state capital of Alaska--Juneau--for 20 years, and observing elected officials from all over the state at close quarters, I have learned that the only time you can be sure that a politician is telling the truth is when he or she calls another politician a liar! I'll concede you may know something I don't know about Ann Coulter to call her "weak kneed." What was the occasion of your discovery?????
George Will likes the Chicago Cubs. Can you trust his judgement? Go Sox!
I heard someone say they hoped the "Good Sox" would win.
Which team is that? :-}
This is snobbery. Who does he think wrote the Constitution? They were smart men but they were still just farmers and they did a dang good job. Why do they all think that only the elite can read the Constitution or laws? The Founding Fathers didn't think that because you don't have to be a lawyer to be a Suprme Court justice.
there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence,
And there is no evidence to the contrary either. I'll hold off judging until I hear her answer questions.
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