Over the past several months I have had the honor of being Big Journalism’s official Correction Alpaca.  I’ve requested over two dozen corrections at Big Journalism and many others on Big Hollywood, Twitter, and via email.  Some of the news organizations I’ve addressed have done their journalistic duty and set their respective records straight, while others have neglected to fulfill this journalistic responsibility.  Others still have delivered what Patterico refers to as “stealth corrections,” that is, where a post is corrected without formal acknowledgment by the publication that the public record had been amended. We acknowledge there is a time and place for this, but it’s done far, far, far too often in the internet age.

If you recall, my responsibilities as Correction Alpaca commenced in order to alert the blogosphere of the mainstream media’s culpability and ineptitude in its mostly incorrect reporting of the James O’Keefe caper at Senator Landrieu’s Louisiana office earlier this year.  As of Wednesday, this saga, dubbed “Watergate Jr.,” by MSNBC has come to an end, with O’Keefe pleading guilty to mere misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses and getting a proverbial “slap on the wrist” sentence.

So, in memory of “Watergate Jr.,” I would like to draw your attention to these sites, which at the time of this publication, still have published unforced errors regarding the prank in New Orleans:

Newsweek
The Los Angeles Times
The Atlantic… (more…)

The meme coming from the left is simple: right-wing activity leads to extremism. As early as last April democratic staffers on Capitol Hill were passing out press releases claiming the Town Hall attendees were “neo-Nazis.”

Since then the claim has been echoed by dozens of high profile opinion writers including Paul Krugman at the New York Times and Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post (who claims “far-left violence in this country has gone the way of the leisure suit.”)

In an Op-Ed in the New York Times,  Bill Clinton not so subtly drew parallels between the Oklahoma City bombing and the current environment. He didn’t identify any particular source of danger, but his warning was clearly aimed at those who use “anti-government” rhetoric. No surprise those people tend to be conservatives.

Of course there has been real right-wing extremism, most notably the murder of abortionist George Tiller last Summer. That shouldn’t be ignored or minimized. On the other hand, there was another killing not long after which received a lot less attention. Jim Pouillon, a long time pro-life advocate, was shot three times through the pro-life sign he was holding by a stranger who was irritated by his message. (more…)

The Chicago Tribune company, which also owns the Los Angeles Times,  is on the verge of bankruptcy. In hock to a Lebanese-Mexican billionaire, the New York Times is trying desperately to stay afloat, laying off staff even as it pays its executives exorbitant salaries while mulling the option going behind a pay wall while still employing Frank Rich.

Times, in other words, are tough in the formerly lucrative racket of Joseph Pulitzer, Col. McCormick and William Randolph Hearst:

Now the Philadelphia papers, the Inquirer and the Daily News, are on the brink as well.  They’ve declared bankruptcy and are battling now to stay afloat. Here’s Brian Tierney, CEO of the company that owns them both, discussing their bleak future: (more…)

I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation. It felt like a scene from a movie that conveniently ties plot points together when two critical characters in the storyline share a moment of implausible significance – where the intrepid reporter finally runs his target to ground.

So at first I had trouble getting my words out. “I’m Andrew Breitbart,” I exhaled. Instead of hanging up, Bertha Lewis laughed like someone I would probably like in a different setting – but certainly not in this lifetime now that we are permanently and publicly tied to one another as media-based adversaries.

I knew the awkwardness of the moment would turn into trouble when I started asking her pointed questions and, sure enough, we soon we found ourselves in trouble.

“Did you go to the White House last year?” I asked.

Bertha Laughed heartily.  ”No,” she said.

“Really?” I pushed.

“No. One hundred percent not. Not this year. Not last year. Not ever,” she stated firmly, all the while maintaining an awkward and ironic joviality that was likely born of the weirdness of our impromptu exchange. (more…)