The Science of the New York Times

This was noted earlier in @BenK84's satisfying, slenderizing Morning Dump.

A plainly false claim is made -- a claim beloved in progressive political mythology, but like most mythologies, having absolutely no truth to it, except in the hearts of the Faithful -- and the New York Times takes its sweet old times in correcting it.

The New York Times finally ate crow for its bogus assessment of the Iraq coalitions assembled by President Bush and President Obama, issuing a correction Tuesday for its two-week-old claim that "unlike Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama has sought to surround the United States with partners."

...

“Unlike Mr. Bush in the Iraq war, Mr. Obama has sought to surround the United States with partners,” [a reporter (not opinion writer) named] Landler wrote.

It took the Times twelve days to finally reverse that assertion. "An article on Sept. 11 . . . gave an incorrect comparison between efforts by the president to seek allies' support for his plans and President George W. Bush’s efforts on such backing for the Iraq War," the paper explained. "The approach Mr. Obama is taking is similar to the one Mr. Bush took."

The approach is similar, but as NRO notes, the results aren't similar.

[T]he United Kingdom and Turkey remain conspicuously absent from the president's coalition, as do many of the United States’ traditional partners in Europe and East Asia.

The Times did not immediately respond when asked what prompted the correction and why it took twelve days to be issued.

Compare this with Gabe's post earlier noting that an AP reporter is praising Obama for securing the rhetorical support of "five Arab nations," which, that reporter asserts, distinguishes Obama's approach from Obama's.

Not so, Gabe points out.

Some have questioned why I am riding Neil DeGrasse Tyson so hard.

It's because of this.

Tyson and progressives insist that they live in a "Reality-Based Community" in which adherents hew strictly to empirically-provable, objective fact.

Meanwhile, they allege their opponents live in a world of Magical Thinking and Political Mythology.

And yet when we check to see the empirically-provable, objective facts these Paragons of Reason base their worldview upon, we find out that a distressingly high fraction of them are simply made up, simplistic fictions told for purposes of moral instruction and reassurance.

Like fairy-tales a mother tells to her babe.

The Progressive Cult

If we really pray hard enough that imaginary premises are real, they become real. Our hearts are so pure and full of feeling that they can conjure an alternate reality to replace the defective one we live in.

posted by Ace at 12:12 PM

| Access Comments