Mea Culpa: NY Times Corrects the Record for Calling Washington Times 'An Outlet Decidedly Opposed to Mr. Obama'

Photo of Jeff Poor.
  • Bookmark and Share

If you haven't noticed, a lot of media outlets have gotten worked up into a tizzy over the mere mention of death panels. The New York Times got so worked up, it went after a few conservatives outlets by name in its Aug. 13 issue.

"But the rumor [that Obama's health care proposal would create death panels] - which has come up at Congressional town-hall-style meetings this week in spite of an avalanche of reports laying out why it was false - was not born of anonymous e-mailers, partisan bloggers or stealthy cyberconspiracy theorists," Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes wrote for the Times. "Rather, it has a far more mainstream provenance, openly emanating months ago from many of the same pundits and conservative media outlets that were central in defeating President Bill Clinton's health care proposals 16 years ago, including the editorial board of The Washington Times, the American Spectator magazine and Betsy McCaughey, whose 1994 health care critique made her a star of the conservative movement (and ultimately, New York's lieutenant governor)."

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

But just calling out the Washington Times just once wasn't enough. Rutenberg and Calmes took it a step further, calling the paper once again as "an outlet decidedly opposed to Mt. Obama (since corrected in the online version.)

"The specter of government-sponsored, forced euthanasia was raised as early as Nov. 23, just weeks after the election and long before any legislation had been drafted, by an outlet decidedly opposed to Mr. Obama, The Washington Times," Rutenberg and Calmes wrote.

Twenty-four hours later, the New York Times reconsidered its language charging The Washington Times as an outlet "opposed to Mr. Obama." The paper issued this ham-handed correction in its Aug. 15 issue.

"An article on Friday about the origins of the false rumor that President Obama's health care proposals would create government-sponsored panels to decide which patients were worthy of living referred imprecisely to the stance of The Washington Times, which shortly after the election published an editorial comparing some positions of the incoming administration to the euthanasia policies of the Third Reich,' the correction said. "In describing the newspaper as ‘an outlet decidedly opposed to Mr. Obama," the article was referring to its opinion pages, not to its news pages."


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Oh isn't this a precious

Oh isn't this a precious spin for a retraction/correction.

Humorous actually...just like the rest of the ink the enemy within spills....getting caught in their own web...priceless.

Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Hey BT...

Was that you, in the 4th row, enthusiastically cheering Barry yesterday? /;-b

Nope...but if I had been in

Nope...but if I had been in the vicinity I'd have been in this crowd.

Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh

Well, you must've felt proud

Well, you must've felt proud to have the Big Guy visting Big Sky Country, huh?  (lol)

Actually...was too busy

Actually...was too busy yesterday to notice until much later...like late last night, early this morning...I knew he was coming as I posted about some stuff regarding this phony fund-raising, pressure raising (think Baucus), constant 24/7 OCare campaign ad that it was going to be about a week ago....and it was.   ;-)

Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh

BT

From your link:

"Meanwhile, Anna Gustina, who heads Organizing for America,
Obama's political organization in Montana, called it "a great day"
for the group. She said the group worked with the SEIU and Montana
AFL-CIO to charter five buses to bring workers from Billings, Great
Falls and Missoula to support the president's health care reform
efforts."

But wait a minute. I thought it was we "astroturf conservatives" that did the busing in. 

"This
liberal would be all about socialize -- uh, uh, would be about
basically taking over and the government running all of your companies."-Maxine Waters 2008

This has become a "stop

This has become a "stop touching me!" argument typical of the sophomoric journalists still trying to refute an allegory on a Facebook page.

So, if anyone from the NYT, or MSNBC, or CNN, CBS (Katie, you out there?) or any other trolling Lib is reading this, please answer the following question:

How is our government planning to disperse the Swine Flu (H1N1) vaccine as it becomes available?

And the follow up:

Hello?!

~idiots~

Spank me

I love the new york times. I use them to light fires in my fireplace

-edit

"Death

"Death panels"...LOL

Sarah Palin raises her pinky finger and the Libtard world goes into meltdown.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.

President Bush spoke about the need for health care reform ...

... AT EVERY SINGLE State of the Union Address.  Every single one FOR 8 YEARS in a row.  But what did the legislative branch do?  NOTHING!  Because they weren't interested in REFORM.  They wanted CONTROL.  They are a bunch of CONTROL FREAKS.

Hey you, over there, with

Hey you, over there, with the Obama shoe polish on your mouth. Ever think of trying a real job, like maybe journalism?

Wishful Thinking

Any chance that while they are at it...the NY TImes will apologize for being an enemy of the American people? 

"I May Be Changed By War, But I Will Not Be Defeated By It" - Audie Murphy

Chickens, home, roosting, etc, etc

"When a reputable newspaper lies, it poisons the community; every newspaper story becomes suspect." - NY Times in 1981 slamming a WaPo article