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FAKE BUT EVENTUALLY TRUE
The Boston Globe is bleeding after running a blood-on-the-ice story about the opening of Canada’s seal hunt:
The story, which was published Wednesday, contained details that “hunters on about 300 boats converged on ice floes, shooting seal cubs by the hundreds, as the ice and water turned red.”
However, the seal hunt was actually delayed until Friday morning due to bad weather.
So the story should have reported that “hunters not on any boats didn’t converge on ice floes, shooting no seal cubs as the ice and water retained their usual respective colouration.” The Globe has “discontinued use” of freelancer Barbara Stewart:
“The author’s failure to accurately report the status of the hunt and her fabrication of details at the scene are clear violations of the Globe’s journalistic standards,” the Globe said in an editor’s note on its web site.
If the Globe’s editors had checked Stewart’s history, they might have noticed this warning sign:
Stewart, who worked for The New York Times for about a decade ...
Yikes! Talk about a red flag. This Reuters piece at the NYT’s site doesn’t mention Stewart’s past at the Crazy Old Lady, but it does have interesting comment from Globe foreign editor James Smith:
“What she told us—and we did check during the day—was that she had confirmed with one of the fishermen in the story that it was going ahead,” Smith said, adding that in retrospect the paper should have worked harder to clarify this.
Well, yes.
(Report by Alan R.M. Jones)
UPDATE. The Boston Herald leads with the “former NYT staffer” angle:
A Boston Globe freelance writer who was axed this week for fabricating part of a story had worked for a decade as a New York Times reporter.
Barbara Stewart worked as a reporter on the Times’ metro desk between October 1994 and May of last year, Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed last night.
Picture ex-NYT staff amending their resumes (“Ever worked at the Times, Ms. Dowd? “Me? Oh, no, no, no, Mr Alt Weekly Editor! Only respectable publications”). Original Stewart text here.
This is an example of how bloggers can’t achieve the standards that are guaranteed by the professionalism and editorial control of the mainstream media. Thank God.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 04 16 at 03:15 AM • permalinkIn other media-scadenfreude news, “the Boston Globe is expecting steep overall circulation declines for the six-month period ending March 2005”. That release was issued before the latest mess-up.
The Globe was a fanatical supporter of the Kerry campaign, and took a leading role in smearing the Swift Boat Veterans. Like the LA Times, the paper appears to be suffering a dose of bad karma.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 04 16 at 03:23 AM • permalinkYesterday, on FoxNews, there was a talkshow segment on the subject “Are amateur reporters sometimes dangerous?” (or words to that effect). I didn’t catch all of the discussion (it’s hard to listen while eating in the mess hall), but the question struck me as silly.
Think about it by asking a similar question: “Are professional reporters sometimes dangerous?”
From this little issue alone, I’d say the answer is “Hell, yes!”
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 04 16 at 03:44 AM • permalinkLike the LA Times, the paper appears to be suffering a dose of bad karma.
Evil, it’s not exactly karma that causes these media outlets to decline.
It’s more a matter that people realise that if they want to get undisguised propaganda from the Democratic/Labor/Labour Party (insert name of local left-wing political party here), then they can get it for free from the party in question.
By comparison, when we pay money we expect the news.
Caertainly that’s why I no longer pay good money to the Sydney Morning Herald - and many others think the same way.
Posted by The Mongrel on 2005 04 16 at 06:49 AM • permalinkMongrel, if we define “karma” as “the consequences of one’s actions”, then our interpretation of events is very similar.
In this case, the action was printing propaganda instead of news, and the consequence was a net loss of readers.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 04 16 at 09:28 AM • permalinkTreacher - Looks like the Boston Globe has joined the club.
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2005 04 16 at 10:17 AM • permalinkHere’s what Dune a Danish poster at the Belmont Club (under Faustian Bargain) has this to say about baby seals:
“There’s a crime done to the Eskimos of Greenland . . . When Greenpeace and Brigitte Bardot . . . decided to come down hard on all seal trade, . . . which was solely done only on grown seals – and which was entirely sustainable . . . Eskimos saw the money they could have for their seal fur plummet . . . many Eskimos consequently became unemployed and impoverished dependent on welfare . . .
a whole culture, thousands of years old, all but destroyed. It’s estimated that the last traditional Eskimo hunters will be gone within ten years. That’s what I think of when I hear of Greenpeace and self-righteous youths throwing paint at women with fur coats.There’s a lot more. As they say, read the whole thing. Dune and other northern European posters know what they’re talking about and it’s not the news you’re liable to get from the MSM.
If baby harp seals weren’t so cute you wouldn’t hear a peep out of PETAGreenpeace et al about this.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 04 16 at 11:38 AM • permalinkMr. Bingley. Thank you for furnishing us with that bit of witty commentary. I’m sure you have sealed up that aspect of the conversation.
Blerp. No straight male growing up in the 50’s or 60’s will ever be able to find fault with Ms Bardot for anything. Greenpeace is also responsible for about one-half million children losing their sight-every year- because of their stance on genetic foods in the lesser developed countries.Why should we give a crap about seals again?
Bad cholesterol.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 04 16 at 02:12 PM • permalinkAs I commented a month ago (in a really big posting that I’m trying to get copyrighted in case Charles Krauthammer tries to steal it), the MSM make their conclusions first, then compile the facts afterwards to support it. To be more efficient, it’s best to completely write the article before the event happens and publish it afterwards. Nothing in the article would change regardless of the facts.
Of course, it does make for a bit of embarrassment if the event doesn’t actually happen. (See Mary Mapes and Bush TAG memo).
Posted by wronwright on 2005 04 16 at 02:19 PM • permalinkSpeaking of Mary Mapes — Guess who’s got a book?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 04 16 at 02:38 PM • permalinkyojimbo - Me and Ms. Bardot are buds. Here’s a pic of me with her in Buzios a few years ago. Sure, she was a little stiff at first, but after a couple caipirinhas she was a load of laughs.
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2005 04 16 at 06:02 PM • permalink
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She otter have thought twice. Ha ha! Get it, “thought twice?”