More Fraud at the New York Times.

The New York Times and the White House website ^ | 5-14-03

[TomB]

As if the Times doesn't have enough trouble right about now, their resident grouchy spinster, Maureen Dowd, has pulled a "jayson". For all of you who don't know what that is, it is the newspeak for willfully making up facts to fit a news story. Apparently the elderly Ms. Dowd is not happy with all the attention the higher-ups at the Times have been lavishing on their former employee, and current disgrace, Jayson Blair.

So, in a last-ditch attempt to get her name back in the limelight, Mo has done some of her own quote-doctoring. Here is a few lines from her latest screed:

Busy chasing off Saddam, the president and vice president had told us that Al Qaeda was spent. "Al Qaeda is on the run," President Bush said last week. "That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated. . . . They're not a problem anymore."

Well, that sounds like a pretty stupid thing for the President to say. So, looking it up on the White House website, we find the actual quote

"Al Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore. (Applause.) And we'll stay on the hunt. To make sure America is a secure country, the al Qaeda terrorists have got to understand it doesn't matter how long it's going to take, they will be brought to justice. (Applause.)"

Well, quite a difference, no?

I wonder if anything will come of this? I'm not holding my breath.

[McGavin999]

Why don't they just stamp "FICTION" across the top of the paper and leave it at that?

Well, I guess they don't have to, everyone is starting to know that it's all only fiction.

[blam]

"Today, I had the pleasure of telling a NYTimes cold calling sales man that I would not subcribe because the times lacked any credibility and were anti-american to boot."

Good!! ...and thank you.

[Grampa Dave]

WHEN WILL THE SLIMES STOP LYING?!

WHEN THE ABOVE HAPPENS!

[TomB]

Andrew Sullivan has picked up on this.

[mabelkitty]

On May 7, she also stated George Bush stole Florida.

That is a lie.

It has been proven over and over again that George Bush WON that state of Florida.

[Allegra]

Actually, the story that would be headline-worthy would be if the New York Times actually printed the truth at one time.

I don't believe they ever have.

[DallasMike]

Sadly, nothing will. It's selective quoting, but she did quote him accurately and denote just where she skipped over some words.

I'm afraid you're right. However, it doesn't hurt to write them at letters@nytimes.com and let them know about it. Altering a quote completely out of context really is considered bad form at newspapers and they might be more sensitive to these things today than they would have been several weeks ago. Consider this:

"I have never beaten my wife."

"I have ... beaten my wife."

Poor Mo is guilty of doing exactly what I did above.

[TheSpottedOwl]

She is less truthful than Baghdad Bob with none of the charm that Baghdad Bob had.

Damn skippy!!

[Bob]

All the news that's fit to print (according to the latest PC BS accdg to EdOps at NYT)!

I prefer this version:

All the news that's fit to print that fits our views.

[TomB]

Sadly, nothing will. It's selective quoting, but she did quote him accurately and denote just where she skipped over some words.

They've been hiding behind that mantra for years, and it is finally catching up to them.

Jayson Blair should call a press conference and hold up Dowd's piece......

er, yuck, bad choice of words.

....he should hold up her column and tell those assembled, "This is what I grew up reading from the Times. Why should I have ANY REASON to think that what I did was wrong?"

Why indeed.

[Mia T]

Thx for the ping, g.

Amazingly brazen 'editing.'
What arrogance and stupidity.
Utterly despicable.

Q ERTY8^BUMP

 

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[Angelwood]

bump for later

[Cyber Ninja]

Given the whole 26 letter alphabet, arranged and repeated as needed, anything is possible. CB^)

[Howie]

A newspaper without credibility, is like a hooker without a ______.

[theDentist]

'Tis better.

[Ironword]

Certainly, Dowd's use of the ellipses and unmarked capitalization of the "T" --- as in [T] --- contrary to the original demonstrate intent to deceive.

The NYT has been a skewed and inaccurate rag for decades; even their use of halftones (photos) is manipulative. But I think one can date the portent of modern ills from that infamous day in which Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. placed on the front page Maureen Dowd's pathetic piece declaring that Nancy Reagan was slipping Frank Sinatra in through the back door of the White House for trysts!?!

More importantly, if a two-bit, youthful hustler can scam the supposedly high-caliber editors of the NYT for so many years, what can and do experienced "information hustlers" (i.e., PR people, foreign spokesmen, etc.) around the world accomplish?

[Eala]

That bears repeating!

More importantly, if a two-bit, youthful hustler can scam the supposedly high-caliber editors of the NYT for so many years, what can and do experienced "information hustlers" (i.e., PR people, foreign spokesmen, etc.) around the world accomplish?

[LisaAnne]

Mo Dowd is gonna be the Helen Thomas of the next generation:
The looks, the inntegrity, the honesty ....
She has it all going for her.

So9

[Ironword]

That bears repeating!

Glad to say it again:

More importantly, if a two-bit, youthful hustler can scam the supposedly high-caliber editors of the NYT for so many years, what can and do experienced "information hustlers" (i.e., PR people, foreign spokesmen, etc.) around the world accomplish?

[aristeides]

The federal courts just sanctioned a government lawyer for this kind of misleading selective quotation. Precision Specialty Metals Inc. v. United States (Appeal of Walser), 315 F.3d 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2003). This is unethical behavior even among lawyers.