Never Mind

At Townhall today I write about how my childhood memories of Emily Litella come to mind when I see the way the media treat corrections to major stories that they have gotten wrong — with little more than a “never mind.”

There have been quite a few “never mind” media opportunites during the Bush years. They range in significance from such incorrect stories as that of the plastic Thanksgiving turkey in Baghdad, to stories such as those of widespread rape and murder in the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina. Michelle Malkin once used a reference to Emily Litella when writing about the “Gitmo Koran flushing” story. Few of the “never minds” have gotten the prominent play that the original inaccurate reports received though. More distressing is that many of them have passed unrealized at all. Instead of even a “never mind,” too often we have gotten dumb silence.

So how does the media set a story straight, after it has peddled an alternate reality version for months or even years?…

I then address the case of the Valerie Plame story and how the media could have gotten that one so wrong, and then I quote Hillary Clinton. I guess you have to read the rest for that to make sense.

Update: The Anchoress read my column and has a lot to add on the subject.

Thanks to John for letting me guest blog at Right Wing News. If you liked this post, please visit me at Wizbang and Wizbang Politics. If you didn’t like this post, then visit the other Wizbang bloggers anyway. They are all very good.

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