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April 01, 2005
Another Fake Memo? Part 4
The Washington Post seems to have been dishonest about what it actually wrote. The stonewalling has begun after all.
The Post claims that it never intended to say Republicans put out the memo. But here is what Michelle Malkin has found:
And here's the article in Yahoo! News, once again bylined to Allen and Roig-Franzia:A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base...
Are we supposed to believe that a renegade Seattle Times copy editor inserted the phrase "by party leaders" on his or her own? Are we supposed to believe that copy editors at the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times and Yahoo! News inserted the exact same phrase on their own?
A much more plausible explanation is that the version of the Allen/Roig-Franzia article published in the Post differed from the version the Post sent out to other newspapers on its wire service. If the version of the article that went out on the wire stated that the Schiavo memo was distributed by GOP party leaders, the Post should acknowledge the error rather than blame "secondhand accounts."
Powerline again has more:
So it seems clear what happened. The Post originally wrote a story that explicitly claimed that the "talking points memo" was drafted and distributed by the Republican leadership. That version of the story went out over the Post's wire service and was picked up by dozens of news outlets. Before the paper went to press, however, someone at the Post apparently realized that the paper had no basis for attributing the memo to the Republicans, and the key language was deleted from the story that actually appeared in print. That story said: "An unsigned one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters." And ever since, reporter Mike Allen and others at the Post have said that they never meant to imply that the memo was created or distributed by Republicans.
Later in the same post:
A reader points out that the Post's original story on the fake memo, which went out, apparently, on March 19, also included this paragraph:Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.
Someone at the Post swallowed the fake memo hook, line, and sinker--Mike Allen, I assume. I'll write to Allen and see whether he has anything to say for himself. As it stands now, this story is a disgrace for the Washington Post, in much the same way that the 60 Minutes story on President Bush's National Guard service was a disgrace for CBS.
Previous Another Fake Memo post.
Posted by Pete at April 1, 2005 02:40 PM
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