Excising a Quote, Diminishing a Marine's Memory

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Outcry continues over the Times' omission of quotes from the last letter of Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Starr. As recounted yesterday on TimesWatch, a Times story by James Dao last week marking the death of 2,000 U.S troops in Iraq printed one part of a letter from Cpl. Starr, to be delivered to his girlfriend in case of Starr's death. That portion of the letter showed the Marine foreseeing his own death.

But as Michelle Malkin first revealed, after receiving a letter from Cpl. Starr's uncle, the Times left out the very next part, which explained what Starr considered the greater meaning of his sacrifice in Iraq. In doing so, the Times left readers with a diminished, one-dimensional portrait of a doomed Marine, instead of one who saw his sacrifice in the context of something greater and worthwhile.

The New York Post writes in an editorial this morning: "There is saintliness in a soldier's prospective acceptance of an honorable death in combat. To diminish such a deed, especially in service of a political agenda, approaches sacrilege. So it was with the manner in which The New York Times last week noted the death of Cpl. Jeffrey Starr, USMC, of Snohomish, Wash., who was killed in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour of duty in Iraq."

The Political Teen has video of Starr's mother Shellie Starr on Bill O'Reilly, in which she points out that the Times even botched some of the facts of Starr's death. He was killed on May 30, Memorial Day (not April 30 as reported by the Times) by a sniper, not in a firefight.

For more examples of Times bias, visit TimesWatch.