Media Matters: Whitewater "mistakes"

[Coexist]

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200706050004?f=h_top

<snip>
Let's dissect this. First, why the passing reference to the fact that editors wrote the article's headline? That's because the headline was wildly misleading. The Clintons did not, as the Times stated, join a savings and loan operator in a real estate venture. In 1978, when the Clintons teamed up with McDougal for the Whitewater investment, McDougal was not a savings and loan operator. He became one years later. (The headline simply mirrored Gerth's disjointed reporting, in which he stressed, in the very first sentence, that the Clintons were business partners with a savings and loan operator.) Yet the implied connection -- the Times-fueled perception -- that Gov. Clinton was using regulatory powers to benefit a banking buddy became a key element in propelling the story nationally and sparking congressional investigations.

But the big news from the endnote is that 15 years after the Times' inaugural Whitewater report was published, Gerth now concedes that much to his "dismay," the article was riddled with "a number of mistakes" caused by editors who had "rewritten" his article. Only Gerth's quick fix-it action, we're told, saved the article for subsequent editions of the Times. Unfortunately, Gerth does not detail which mistakes editors inserted into his story and which were corrected.

And what are readers to make of the fact that even after Gerth says he fixed the article, it still contained substantial errors, such as the allegations that the Clintons had invested little money in Whitewater?

More questions: If mistakes were fixed in the article, then why weren't corrections published? For instance, if you look up the March 8, 1992, Whitewater story in the Nexis database, no accompanying correction is included. I asked New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis about this. Her email response:

"We are unable to address a question about the editing of an article 15 years ago, but if Jeff Gerth found and corrected errors between editions, the editors at the time apparently judged that they were minor ones."

Lots more at the link above - very interesting stuff.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. media matters is a clintonista wing.

[Coexist]

2. you read that article and THAT is your response?

really?

Whitewater cost taxpayers millions - Ken Starr admitted tossing out red meat to the press - which included morsels on bluedressgate which caused the entire IMPEACHMENT thing. The Clintons were CLEARED of any wrong doing in the matter. And the only thing you can respond with - when a story comes out now about how the article that helped start it all was riddled with uncorrected inaccuracies is that the people who reported it are Clintonistas?

Wow.

[WilliamPitt]

3. I am now dumber for having read your reply.

pzzzzcheeeezzzzz

[dogday]

6. progressive much? nt

[ConsAreLiars]

9. I think "no" would be the honest answer, if you ever get one.

Nice how handles get used to mask ID and IDeology.

[dogday]

10. Notice the drive-by

I can drive-by too!!!!

[AlCzervik]

4. that was intersting, i heard someone discussing this and of course i can't remember who

now but they discussing Isikoff and his zeal for going after both Clintons and ho Gerth was equally as bad.

[Coexist]

5. forgive me, but I don't quite understand your reply

Isikoff went after Gerth? Or he was going after the Clintons with the same zeal as Gerth?

[AlCzervik]

7. same zeal-the two of them were like a tag team.

[Rageneau]

8. Gerth, Issikoff and Steno Sue were all on the GOP payroll

These three and dozens of other second-rate, easily manipulated reporters were spoon-fed by the Republicans who used them to spread lies about the Clintons. Bill Clinton is the most honest, most integrous politician who ever lived. And we know that because he was (thanks to the GOP) by far the most investigated. Every aspect of Clinton's life was double-examined. Meanwhile, Cheney can't even let it be known who comes to visit him for fear of going to prison if the truth came out.

BTW, can I PROVE that Gerth Schmidt and Issikoff are on the GOP payroll? Sure I can. I just said so, didn't I? And when dealing with these mopes, accusations are proof enough.