In the wake of Tuesday's epic landslide for Republicans in the midterms, the New York Times ran a brief story titled "Rising Stars in the Republican Party." Accompanying the story were six photos of victorious Republicans, starting with Joni Ernst, whose victory in Iowa wrested control of the Senate control to the GOP.
"But now that the last ballots (well, most of them, anyway) have been counted, here is a look at some of the Republicans' rising stars of the 114th Congress -- and the people who, along the way, surprised us, entertained us and, in some cases, made us squeal," wrote Times' reporters Ashley Parker and Jonathan Weisman.
Yes, that's what they wrote -- "made us squeal."
At first blush this sounds like an unlikely admission from nearly anyone employed at the Gray Lady. Many if not most people beyond Iowa's borders had probably never of Ernst until several months ago when she released an indelible campaign ad, titled "Squeal," in which Ernst described an upbringing that included castrating pigs on a farm. "So when I get to Washington," she vowed, "I'll know how to cut pork."
"Washington's full of big spenders," Ernst says at the end of the ad. "Let's make 'em squeal."
It's a great line, one that helped propel the ad to stories touting the best commercials of the campaign. So for the New York Times to have referred to candidates who "made us squeal" would seemingly indicate at least passing familiarity with Ernst's amusing ad and signature line.
And yet what did Times' readers find just beneath that brief three-paragraph story -- a correction, and one that surely brought delight to those conservatives who love reading corrections in the Times --
An article on Thursday about some of the Republicans' rising stars of the 114th Congress quoted incorrectly from comments by Senator-elect Joni Ernst, who on Tuesday night became the first woman elected to Congress from Iowa. She said: "We are heading to Washington. And we are going to make 'em squeal!" -- not "We are heading to Washington. And we are going to make a squeal."
"It's liberal women who squeal," wrote Powerline's John Hinderaker after seeing the correction. "Conservative women make 'em squeal. But seriously ..." Hinderaker pointed out that despite the correction, the error itself remained uncorrected in a caption accompanying the Times' photo of Ernst.
