The NYT and Amy Harmon Screw a Conservative

The NYT and Amy Harmon Screw a Conservative

Here's one you probably missed: a story about using the internet to form grassroots political movements.

In this story there's lots of talk about supporters of Wesley Clark and Howard Dean. Then, waaaay toward the end, it mentions a conservative, one John O'Brien. Here's what it said about him:

John O'Brien, a business consultant who attended a recent meet-up sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, said he enjoyed mingling with other conservatives. The only reason he would attend a Dean meet-up, he said, would be to heckle.

This was on Sunday, 1/25/04.

Then, today, 02/02/04, this correction shows up at the bottom of the page:

An article last Sunday about the effect of the Internet on the scope of political debate misstated the position of John O'Brien, a politically conservative business consultant. Although he does not agree with Howard Dean's positions, he said he would be unlikely to attend a meeting of Dean supporters unless it was to learn about grass-roots organizing from their example. He added that he would never consider disrupting the meeting or heckling the speakers.

Now, of the thousands of people who read this article in the paper or on the web, how many read the Retractions the following week and put two and two together? About 3, most likely.

Meanwhile, this reporter, Amy Harmon, has managed to portray conservatuves in a bad light and make this O'Brien out to be an ass to the 999, 997 people who read the article but not the correction.

My advice: don't talk to reporters like Amy Harmon of the NYT as they "misstate" your position. Completely screw your position into an unrecognizable piece of bullshit, more likely.

NYT: Amy Harmon - Politics of the Web: Meet, Greet, Segregate, Meet Again (link requires registration)