More Deception From an NYT Columnist

Maureen Dowd, this time.

Brendan Nyhan tells the story at Spinsanity, yesterday:

An outrageous new falsehood is circulating about President Bush. Last week, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd misrepresented a Bush statement to imply that he said the Al Qaeda terrorist network is "not a problem anymore," and the distorted quotation has since been repeated by MSNBC "Buchanan and Press" co-host Bill Press, CNN's Miles O'Brien and others, including numerous foreign press outlets. At a time when the New York Times is under fire for its conduct in the Jayson Blair scandal, Dowd's creation of an exploding media myth is cause for serious concern....

Critics have every right to object to Bush's statement if they believe it mischaracterizes the threat from Al Qaeda. But they also have a responsibility to accurately represent what the President actually said, rather than repeating Dowd's distorted quotation. The New York Times - and the other outlets that have disseminated the myth - should let their readers know the full context of Bush's statement. The rapid spread of this myth is yet another sad commentary on the state of American political journalism.

Nyhan details how Dowd's misrepresentation has spread all through the media, both newspapers and television. This reminds me of the old epigram: A lie has no legs and cannot stand, but it has wings and can fly far and wide. This is true in the Internet age, perhaps, more than ever before.

Here is something I ponder every once in a while. Have you ever noticed how falsehoods, misunderstandings, and inaccurate rumors spread on the Internet more quickly and more persistently than any attempt to tell the truth, supply the correct understanding, or rectify the rumor? Whole websites exist just to debunk "urban legends" — a phrase which has become, effectively, a catch-all term for lies, misunderstandings, inaccurate rumors, serious hoaxes, and silly pranks. Like most people, I get e-mails all the time recounting urban legends as true. And, like most urban legends, they were debunked months ago, if not years ago.

Why are things like this? I think it is because ours is a fallen race, and we love falsehood more than truth, even if we don't know it's falsehood.

P.S. Here is what Dowd wrote about the president's speech:

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

And here is what Bush actually said, May 5:

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. 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.

Maybe it's Dowd who was Jayson Blair's hero. ;)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 05/23/03 08:43:51 AM
Categorized as Media.