June 27, 2003

When people are in a rush, they make mistakes. And they also sometimes let slip little truths about themselves that under ordinary circumstances get edited out. So it goes with bias in the media. When the press is in a rush, bias often pops out to the surface. Latest example (from Best of the Web):

CNN reported that Scalia, in dissenting from Lawrence v. Texas, a ruling declaring homosexual sodomy a fundamental constitutional right, had said he has "nothing against homosexuals." It turns out that although Scalia's dissent does contain this sequence of words, the network egregiously misquoted him. Here's what he actually wrote:

"Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda through normal democratic means."

The object of the preposition against was not homosexuals but promoting. By presenting the fragmentary quote, CNN made it appear as if Scalia were issuing a defensive denial of personal prejudice, when in fact he was making a point about political philosophy. CNN has since corrected its story, and the original source of the error appears to have been an Associated Press dispatch that moved some 20 minutes after the court handed down its decision. The wire service has not issued a correction...

When the AP screws up, it reverberates around the world, as a Google search of today's news stories demonstrates. No one got it as wrong, however, as the New York Times' Joel Brinkely ... who explicitly falsified the quote (emphasis ours):

"Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the dissent and took the unusual step of reading it aloud from the bench this morning, saying "the court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda," while adding that he personally has "nothing against homosexuals.""

Posted by Greg Ransom