October 15, 2004

GOING TO THE SOURCE. The LA Times cribs its fake news directly from the pages of the NY Times -- and simply skips the page A2 corrections printed days later. Patterico has analysis and a suggestion, but I liked this comment from a reader even more:
I find your naivete appealing. What makes you think it was a mistake? I've seen the same discredited crap get put into headlines with a tiny correction days later. Take the Washington Post headline from last week. They [misattributed a recycled] David Kay quote for the story about the Duelfer report. How can that be a mistake? They issued a correction days later, but my liberal moonbat friends had already emailed me about how Bush-lied/People-died. They never read the correction or even the report, even after I had sent it to them. They're prejudices were confirmed. End of story.

I don't believe that many of those are mistakes, they are purposeful. Not coordinated, merely people with the same ideas doing the same things because they see it works. How many car dealerships use this advertisement, "If we make a deal we'll pay off your car no matter how much you owe."? .. Do you think they coordinated it? Nope, one did it and the rest saw that it was a good idea so they went with it. The media is playing with the election. They're trading on their reputation to screw with an election.

At this point a dose of scepticism about the press is very healthy thing. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack