In Megan McArdle’s piece “A Tape Too Far” of January 26th, 2010, Ms. McArdle repeatedly refers to an alleged wiretapping plot by James O’Keefe at the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu:
James O’Keefe, the guy who did the ACORN sting, doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a completely legal recording of an interview between you and someone else, and a completely illegal and reprehensible wiretapping of someone’s phones. Journalists are not spies, and there are very good reasons that you need a warrant to bug a telephone system or otherwise eavesdrop on third-party conversations.
Like many 24-year olds, he may not have fully appreciated why what he was doing was wrong, but if the allegations are true, I hope that the judge explains it to him while handing down a stiff penalty.
There are no allegations of any wiretap plot in the FBI affidavit, and a law enforcement official has conceded that the four men were not attempting to wiretap or intercept calls. Furthermore, legal representation for the accused has gone on record stating there were no intentions to bug phones in the Senator’s office. The Atlantic’s own Politics blog recently published a post acknowledging there was no attempt to wiretap.
We kindly ask you to issue a correction/retraction to the story.
We have been/will be making similar requests of other news sources to correct similar errors. Some, such as the Washington Post, MSNBC’s David Shuster, and Talking Points Memo already have posted corrections or retractions.
In addition, Mr. O’Keefe is 25-years old.
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15 Comments
Retracto's on a roll!
Holy alpaca Batman! What a mangled web they weave!
Ouch, Megan. Way to be behind the info stream. All you had to do was read the affidavit before writing the story. What a dim bulb. No wonder she supported Obama.
I get it now. James O'Keefe's plan wasn't just to find out the truth about the phones in Landrieu's office. It was to get caught doing something that looked suspicious–but was in truth legally innocuous–and then let the Old Media run their accusations without a shred of proof. The mainstream media would thereby have yet another nail in their coffin driven in, however, entirely by their own hand through blatantly-biased reporting completely unencumbered with the facts.
By hook or by crook, O'Keefe ALWAYS gets his man.
Retracto is ON FIRE!
EXACTO-MUNDO! OUTSTANDING, MR. O'KEEFE & CO.!
While Fox is recognized as the most trusted network, we have this going on. Interesting that a certain number have already issued retractions or corrections to their stories. Are ratings important anymore?
" Like many 24-year olds, he may not have fully appreciated why what he was doing was wrong . . ."
Well Megan, like many 36-year olds, you may not have fully appreciated the importance of getting your facts straight before commiting them to print.
(by the way, HAPPY B-DAY – now that you're 37 perhaps your work will reflect more maturity.)
I would expect a correction from Megan McArdle. She is usually careful and factual when reporting on economic/political issues and is frequently linked at Instapundit for that reason.
Ahh, the Atlantic, home of andi sullivan and megan mcardle. Birds of a feather and all that.
I'm surprised that she was an Obama supporter, do you have a link to that?
This was dumb on her part but her commentary on the Obama economic shipwreck and some of his political gaffes has been pretty negative. I
Ralph, I know it's gets kind of technical . . .but if someone's caught red-handed (apprehended in the act of committing a crime) it's kind of important to know why their hand is red. – i.e. : a person grabbing a grape in a vegetable section of Safeway vs. cash from the till.
Why are you bankrolling this creep?
These retracto requests are a red herring. You got caught redhanded, and you don't want people to recognize it..
Go burn a Reichstag.
McCardle made a second post about O'Keefe, presenting the current explanation of his actions as possible. It's not a retraction, but it does put her a step ahead of most of this lot. http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2010...
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