Timesgate Hits Maureen Dowd

Newsmax.com ^ | 5-28-03 | Carl Limbacher

[Paul Atreides]

Leading New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has been swept up in the Timesgate scandal that began earlier this month when the paper fired reporter Jayson Blair for fabricating stories.

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis admitted Tuesday that a recent column by Dowd criticizing President Bush is being "looked into" after questions were raised about whether the celebrated columnist had deliberately misreported a Bush quote.

"If Dowd intentionally misrepresented the President's words, she is guilty of a journalistic offense much worse than [reporter Rick] Bragg's intern problem, or even Blair's fantasies," wrote New York Daily News columnist Zev Chafets, to whom Mathis revealed news of the Dowd probe.

Chafets noted that if Dowd had indeed deliberately distorted the president's words, it could impact the Times' credibility even more than the Blair fiasco.

"Blair is a kid, after all, who made things up for fun and profit," he wrote in his Wednesday column. "Dowd is a major figure at The Times, a role model. A syndicated role model."

The controversy stems from Dowd's selective editing of a Bush quote in her column last week, "Osama's Offspring."

Here's what Bush actually said:

"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."

But while Bush was clearly referring to the "top al-Qaeda operatives" who were "either jailed or dead" when he said they were no longer "a problem anymore," Dowd's truncated version made it sound as if Bush was boasting that he'd wiped out al-Qaeda entirely.

Here's how the Times' Pulitzer Prize winner covered the president's remarks:

"'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.'"

In a move that was largely viewed as an attempt to keep the Timesgate scandal from metastasizing, last week the paper waved off probers from the office of the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District, who wanted to review Jayson Blair's work for possible wire fraud charges.

[Paul Atreides]

"Dowd is a major figure at The Times, a role model. A syndicated role model."

I'd hate to see the losers who regard The Dowdy One as a role model.

[EllaMinnow]

Time for some satisfying Dowdenfreude.

[grobdriver]

"If Dowd intentionally misrepresented the President's words

What "if"?
There is no "if".

[b4its2late]

Kewl. Let's hope her column goes down in flames.

[Mister Baredog]

Kewl. Let's hope her column goes down in flames.

Mor likely she'll get a raise. LOL

[b4its2late]

IMHO, she definitely changed the meaning of the quote by leaving out all of those words, but I ain't no Enlish major......

[My2Cents]

If integrity meant more to her than landing partisan jabs, she'd be clean.

[Paul Atreides]

"Blair is a kid, after all, who made things up for fun and profit," he wrote in his Wednesday column.

Some people are really trying to gloss over the Blair fiasco. First, they wouldn't even say that he lied and plagiarized, it was he "misrepresented and borrowed." Now, he's just a fun-loving kid.

[b4its2late]

Mor likely she'll get a raise.

Unfortunately, you are probably right....... LOL!

[giotto]

I'd hate to see the losers who regard The Dowdy One as a role model.

And view a 27 year old man as a kid.

[Plutarch]

It's okay. Maureen is liberal white woman. She can do no wrong.

[poindexter]

"last week the paper waved off probers from the office of the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District, who wanted to review Jayson Blair's work for possible wire fraud charges."

Since when does anyone have the option of "waving off" a US Attorney?

[Zavien Doombringer]

Hey Maureen!

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

"All she's got now is bourbon for mouthwash, and it's showing on her columns." -- Rush Limbaugh

[Beck_isright]

No way? Dowd, make things up? Why that would be like that former reporter Blair being in another city and fabricating bylines. That could never happen.</smiling sarcasm off

[bert]

.....I'd hate to see the losers who regard The Dowdy One as a role model.....

check out this thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/918876/posts.

in post  # 1 Timesink nails one of the losers who serves up the role models.

[Paul Atreides]

I wonder how many on the NYT payroll are there on pure merit. I would wager that the only ones who are, have conservative leanings.

[CyberAnt]

Not only was it deliberate - I believe Howell Raines edited it ... or else he agreed to her "editing" the President's statement to try to show Bush in a bad light; which is the only goal Howell has in life.