An Update Regarding President Bush and the Jacket Bulge
In response to a growing number of inquiries concerning The Times's decision last October not to run an article on the charge that President Bush was wearing a listening device during the first presidential debate (see my posting number 38, "President Bush and the Jacket Bulge"), the following message was sent today (Feb. 11) to Jim Naureckas, the editor of the bimonthly Extra!, published by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR):
Dear Mr. Naureckas,
Having been directed to it by many of your readers, I have read Dave Lindorff's article about The Times's spiking of the John Schwartz/Andrew Revkin article on the apparent bulge beneath President Bush's suit during the first presidential debate.
I consequently retrieved the original version of the story Mr. Lindorff mentions in his Extra! article, as it was submitted to the paper's top editors. At no point does it come anywhere near to "exposing how George W. Bush had worn an electronic cueing device in his ear and probably cheated during the presidential debates," as Mr. Lindorff claims it did. The article established that Robert Nelson said there was something underneath the president's suit, but very specifically noted that Nelson himself acknowledged that the bulge could have been, as the authors wrote, "any number of things, including a back brace."
It is not unreasonable to argue that The Times should have run the article. It is a distortion of the truth to say that it "exposed" anything, and an outright falsehood to say that it indicated Mr. Bush "probably cheated during the presidential debates."
I do hope you will promptly publish this letter on the FAIR website, as I will be doing on my own. I believe any other course of action would be decidedly unFAIR.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Okrent
Public Editor
N.B. Any opinions expressed here, unless otherwise attributed, are solely my own |
