(March 26, 8:30 p.m. -- SEE THE UPDATE at the end of this post.)
People in Cincinnati who follow politics reasonably closely will be scratching their heads wondering what's gotten into the people assembling news stories at the Seattle Times once they learn of what the Times reported in an item that originally went up Wednesday evening and was modified Thursday morning:
A rock was thrown through the window of (1st District Congressman) Driehaus' Cincinnati office Sunday, and a death threat was phoned in to his Washington office a day later, Mulvey said.
Driehaus, who claims to be pro-life but in reality stopped being so when he supported Barack Obama for President in 2008, is one of the members of the Bart Stupak contingent that abandoned their alleged pro-life beliefs to vote for statist health care in the House Sunday night.
Well, perhaps the death threat was real, and of course if it is it demands a thorough investigation.
But there's a "little" problem with the news about that rock throw:
Driehaus's office is on the 30th floor of the Carew Tower downtown:
Instapundit reports that e-mailer Justin Binik-Thomas informed him that "he spoke to Driehaus’ office today and they said this never happened."
Oh, but thousands (or is it hundreds?) of Seattle readers will believe it, plus the readers of the news service from which the Times originally obtained its info if an original report was indeed mistaken (I haven't found another such report in a brief search for one).
The false Driehaus story will feed the bogus but growing media meme that opponents of this administration are violently unhinged. Absent a retraction, it may be that the folks at the Times are really celebrating a mission accomplished.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
UPDATE, March 26, 8:30 p.m.: I received the following in an e-mail from Leon Spinoza of the Times --
Hi. This is Leon Espinoza, executive news editor of The Seattle Times. I am trying to respond to the NewsBusters posting regarding the "Ignorant Seattle Times." We picked up the information in question from the Bloomberg News wire service. On Friday (March 26), our wire editor called Tim Mulvey, the spokesman for Ohio Democratic Rep. Steve Driehaus. Mulvey, who was quoted in the article, said he was misquoted about where the rock was thrown. We contacted Bloomberg, which investigated and then moved a correction. We are publishing this correction in print and have corrected the information at our Web site.
Correction: A story Thursday about vandalism and threats triggered by the health-care overhaul vote said a rock was thrown through the window of Ohio Democratic Rep. Steve Driehaus' Cincinnati office Sunday. The statement was attributed to Driehaus' spokesman Tim Mulvey. Mulvey said Friday that he was misquoted by Bloomberg. A rock was thrown through the window of Hamilton County Democratic Party headquarters in Cincinnati, Mulvey said.
The text within the Times's article has been corrected, and a formal correction is now at the end of of the Times's report.
