The Case of the Vanishing Paragraphs

You can almost hear him screaming, "You were not supposed to print that!"

A BBC article, Feb. 16, contained the following section (brackets in original):

.... Mainstream media defence

The Washington Post London correspondent Glenn Frankel, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former editor of the Post's Sunday magazine, defended his newspaper's editorial judgment.

"We've been down this road many, many times before. We are extremely reluctant to follow this kind of thing up unless there is a really, really compelling public interest. We don't feel there is any reason to until it reaches a threshold.

"All we have at the moment is that the woman's parents, who are republicans, don't like Senator Kerry.

"In any case, nobody would be too shocked if Kerry lied about an affair. Even if someone came to us with photographs we still wouldn't run it. Lying to Don Imus [the radio host to whom Kerry gave his initial denial] is not a federal offence."

The early jousting holds the promise of a campaign with few holds barred. It is a delicate game because it can backfire and allegations are often floated through the undergrowth of the internet to see how far they get. Both campaigns muster big teams to counter whatever might emerge....

In a silent rewrite of the article, that section now reads as follows:

.... Mainstream media defence

The Washington Post London correspondent Glenn Frankel, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former editor of the Post's Sunday magazine, defended his newspaper's editorial judgment, which has proved correct.

"We've been down this road many, many times before. We are extremely reluctant to follow this kind of thing up unless there is a really, really compelling public interest. We don't feel there is any reason to until it reaches a threshold," he said.

Making accusations is a delicate game because it can all can backfire. Allegations, rumours even, are often often floated through the internet to see how far they get. In the Kerry case they have got nowhere. Both campaigns muster big teams to counter whatever might emerge.

A dirty trick which went wrong has already been exposed. This involved a photograph showing a youthful John Kerry sitting alongside Jane Fonda as she made a speech during an anti Vietnam war rally.

It turned out that two photos had been put together. In the original one of John Kerry, he is sitting on his own....

Two paragraphs in which a WaPo writer admits they wouldn't want to run a Kerry-intern story are now gone. The rewrite instead distracts the reader into thinking about Republican "dirty tricks".

Ain't the Internet grand?

See Hoystory.com and Discriminations.

P.S. Allegations, rumours even, are often often floated through the internet to see how far they get. In the Kerry case they have got nowhere. Really? Then it is just a coincidence that Edwards did much better than expected — and is reported to have picked up a great deal of support among the "undecideds" in the last four days before the primary — less than two weeks after the Kerry-Polier "allegations, rumours even" broke? Just wondering........

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 02/18/04 05:47:33 PM
Categorized as Media.