NYT reporter stands by his lie

[Cocoa]

this is the ombudsman's response to my email:

Several readers voiced similar concerns about the following sentence in the 7/21 article, "Bush Plans No Rest in Next Month; 2nd Term Agenda Near," by Adam Nagourney and Richard Stevenson.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/politics/campaign/21repubs.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Mr. Bush has other factors potentially in his favor, several Republicans said. The economy is showing signs of
strengthening, though it remains an open question whether that is happening in time to change voter attitudes about how
Mr. Bush is managing the economy. In Iraq, the transfer of sovereignty has led to some reduction in American casualties.

We raised your concerns with Mr. Stevenson who noted that according to the Department of Defense's web site, for the month leading up to the transfer on June 28, there were 48 Americans killed in action in Iraq. During this period the rate of casualties was between 1.5-1.6 deaths a day (48 deaths divided by either 30 or 32 days depending on which day is used as a starting point; the Defense Department figures were not updated each day at the end of May.)

According to the Department of Defense's web site, from the transfer of sovereignty on June 28 through July 21, there were 32 Americans killed in action in Iraq. During this period of 23 days the rate of casualties was 1.39 deaths per day (32 deaths divided by 23 days.)

This does not represent a huge difference, but still, the casualty rate, at least as measured by KIA, has come down a bit since the handover and has come down very substantially compared to earlier months.

While Mr. Stevenson noted he could understand why readers might object to an implication that there had been a complete turnaround he did not see anything incorrect regarding the statement.

We have also noted reader concerns to a senior editor in charge of following up on corrections who agreed that there was nothing to correct.

Thank you for writing. I hope this helps answer your concern.

Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor

[Renew Deal]

1. You might want to send them this

Average deaths are UP.

Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
3 47 1 2 50 2.08 24
2 715 27 58 800 1.89 424
1 139 33 0 172 4 43
Total 901 61 60 1022 2.08 491

http://icasualties.org/oif/

[Cocoa]

3. wow

by those numbers, it's even worse than the Boston Globe article I based my complaint on. Period 2 includes the very high months of April and May '04, and the post-"handover" period is significantly higher than that.

[roguevalley]

2. they have no soul

[billybob537]

4. Are they relying

on defense dept. Spin,

[Cocoa]

5. apparently so

http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040716-secdef1023.html


RUMSFELD: ...To the extent that the situation continues to calm down, as it has in the last few weeks, then over a period of time, one could look at the alternative of reducing the size of the coalition forces.


Of course, Juan Williams didn't challenge that assertion, but NPR later ran a piece with someone from the Brookings institute, challenging it.

[billybob537]

6. Thats like asking Rummy about TORTURE!!

Um well we're um not um . I don't know the defination of torture but we're um pretty sure this is abuse um not umm torture.

NOTE to RUMMY When you hook electrodes to someone's genitals IT'S TORTURE!!!

[Cha]

7. "No rest" for fuckhead, eh? Good! he can just spread his

haggard self thinly across America!

[KoKo]

8. In today's Media World...shaving the truth is not considered a "lie." But

the more folks who write them, the more pressure there is for them to "clean up their act." Just like the Right Wing has done with their blast e-mails, they changed the tone of the press. We have to hope it goes back the other way. They are disgusting in the way they report.