Sunday, September 19, 2004

The World According to Journalists

When a journalist reports something, it's true until proven false -- as we've learned in the saga called Rathergate. Here's the latest example of that thinking: a throwaway line at the end of an AP story carried by The Washington Times:
The authenticity of the CBS memos has been questioned by document specialists and by relatives of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who supervised Mr. Bush in 1972 and 1973.
Actually, the authenticity of the CBS memos has been questioned by many others not acknowledged there. In any event, the thrust of the sentence is wrong. It should read thus:
CBS has failed to prove the authenticity of the memos. Evidence that they are forgeries without foundation in fact has been provided by many sources, including...