May 25, 2003
DO AS DOWD SAYS
Blinding hypocrisy from Maureen Dowd:
It is paradoxical that the hawks were passionate about breeding idealism by bringing democracy to the Middle East, but are unconcerned about breeding cynicism by refusing to admit mistakes.
What was that about refusing to admit mistakes, Maureen?
Posted by Tim Blair at May 25, 2003 04:22 PMI am the guy who broke the Maureen Dowd story.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030529-120442-1870r.htm
I broke the story at Times Watch which got the story out first based on my email to the New York Times Corrections Department the morning of May 14th. I had sent the email in frustration after spending three hours on the phone trying to alert them to the problem with the column before they syndicated it all over the country. They ignored my calls and emails and the distorted quote was widely circulated the next day.
http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2003/0514.asp#3
Andrew Sullivan had it later that day; I do not know whether he picked it up from Times Watch or independently but he deserves credit raising awareness of the story through his wide readership.
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2003_05_11_dish_archive.html#200290689
While continuing to press the New York Times for an explanation, I have continued to work this story on the internet. This effort began to pay off last week with a series of stories in print (Washington Times, Rocky Mountain News, The New York Daily News), television (CNN, FNC amd MSNBC) and radio (Imus, Limbaugh). Tony Snow of the Fox News Channel recently observed that the “Maureen Dowd story” was a testament to the power of the “blogosphere”.
The Rocky Mountain News then reported that their editors refused to run the column with the altered quotes
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_1985802,00.html
The New York Daily News reported Wednesday that Maureen Dowd's column was being investigated
http://www.nydailynews.com/05-28-2003/news/story/87252p-79552c.html
Maureen Dowd "responded" in her May 28 column by inserting the full version of the quote (without explanation)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/28/opinion/28DOWD.html
The Times told CNN and the New York Daily News that this "correction" closed the matter (scroll to the bottom)
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/87885p-80095c.html
Thursday on CNN, Peter Vines did an extensive report on Lou Dobbs Moneyline. After reporting that the Times considers the matter closed because the full quote appeared in the May 28 column asked the right question: "how is that corrective?"
The Times "correction" was not good enough a newspaper in Texas which has suspended running Dowd's column and demanded that she fully explain herself
http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2003/05/29/1054239236.03033.5074.1841.html
I finally got a call back from the media relations department at the Times which asked me to send an email to Gail Collins, Editor of the Times editorial page. I am told to expect a reply to my original email next week.
Robert A. Cox
New Rochelle, NY