New York Times Confuses Year-Old Book With Obama Inaugural Speech

[struggle4progress]

October 26, 2008 02:19 AM

The clock's running out on the press and the myriad ways that they can possibly mis-report the news of this election, but these consummate professionals continue to find ways to distinguish themselves ...

Mr. Podesta has been mapping out the transition so systematically that he has already written a draft Inaugural Address for Mr. Obama, which he published this summer in a book called "The Power of Progress."

... Here's the funny thing about the boldfaced sentence. Not only is it entirely false, but the truth is actually so easy to verify, that a child could have factchecked this paragraph. The Power Of Progress was published on August 18, 2008. As with most books, it took time to produce. In the case of this book, much of the work had been completed before anyone thought that Barack Obama was the nominee. According to Podesta's organization, the Center for American Progress, "The inaugural address was written and submitted to the publisher in March 2008, during a time when Podesta was supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Podesta re-did the introduction to the book -- but not the inaugural address -- in June when it became clear that Obama would emerge as the nominee."

Of course, looking for anything that might advantage his campaign without tying it to the crazy antics of face-carving fabricators, the McCain campaign seized on this story as a sign of Obama's "presumptuousness." Please note how the fact that this story came from the New York Times forces McCain to not cite the source, having made NYT-hate a critical component of his campaign ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/26/inew-york-timesi-confuses_n_137887.html

[ColbertWatcher]

1. "Fact-checking!" Why, that's crazy talk! n/t

[stillcool]

2. Must be Judith Miller's replacement..