03.28.07

Poor headlines and editorial oversight

Posted in Politics, Media Morons at 5:25 am by JB

I don’t know why the WaPo thinks the government, which deals with millions of more important issues than Marion Barry’s latest escapades, thinks the accuracy should be better than this:

Headline: White House Spokesman’s Colon Cancer Has Returned

Later in the story: “‘Seventeen days after the diagnosis, we go in and take the whole colon out and throw it in a garbage bag,’ he told Cincinnati Gentleman, a magazine in his home town. He also received six months of chemotherapy.”

I know, it’s a small thing, but it’s a sign of a bias…. it’s a sign of poor writing and even more poor editing. So lemme get this right…. Tony Snow had his colon removed 2 years ago, and now has colon cancer ? Does that mean I need to start looking for cervical cancer ? Or maybe ovarian cancer ?

All of those are terrible and dreadful diseases. I wish only the best, and long and happy lives for any woman suffering and living with those afflictions. But…. I’m not gonna check, because I have neither a cervix, nor ovaries. Tony doesn’t have a colon anymore. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have colon cancer.

He has cancerous cells that have metasticized to his liver. And yet, in typical media fashion, the story is about everything BUT Tony. It’s about Dana Perino and Elizabeth Edwards. It is really ok, guys, to sometimes just tell the story, and not try to twist it into your worldview.

Overall it’s not a bad story, but at the same time it stinks. It smacks of the liberal bias that the WaPo is famous for, and has lost so much ground in- the NYT eats your lunch every day in silly liberal bias.

Just write the facts.

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