Socially liberal and fiscally conservative? Then same-sex marriage is a two-fer. According to an authoritative CBO report, allowing for marriage rights for gay couples would affect outlays “by less than $50 million a year in either direction through 2009 and reduce them by about $100 million to $200 million annually from 2010 through 2014.” Cut spending and advance civil rights. No wonder today’s Republicans are so opposed.
NYT VERSUS NYT: “Stretching across four columns of the front page, the June 17 headline “Panel Finds No Qaeda-Iraq Tie; Describes a Wider Plot for 9/11” caused some readers, including Vice President Dick Cheney, to accuse The Times of “outrageous” (Cheney’s word) distortion of the 9/11 commission’s staff report. I don’t buy “outrageous,” but “distortion” works for me – specifically, the common newspaper crime of distortion by abbreviation. The staff report was largely concerned with attacks on United States soil, whereas the headline bore no such qualification. The headline also leaned on two of those words whose brevity makes them dear to all newsrooms: the resolute “no,” and the imprecise “tie.” Assistant managing editor Craig Whitney, who oversees the front page, argues that “tie” in the headline is “a correct shorthand summary” of the report’s conclusion that there appeared to be no “collaborative relationship” between Al Qaeda and Iraq. … Willful distortion? I don’t see it. Misstep? Sure. Is an apology needed, as Internet columnist Bob Kohn, one of the paper’s most forceful (and, often, most incisive) critics on the right, demanded by e-mail? No. Good reporting and careful presentation are what’s needed.” – Dan Okrent, New York Times obudsman, yesterday.
“First Vice chewed out The Times for accurately reporting that the 9/11 commission said there was no collaborative relationship between Saddam and Al Qaeda.” – Maureen Dowd, defending inaccuracy – quelle surprise! – yesterday.
KRISTOL ON THE NYT: A gently devastating analysis.
The Dish 