And yet somehow, this howler slipped into the Wall Street Journal:
“Some of these Christian minorities have coexisted with Islam in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East since the time of Jesus.”
As Mark Krikorian writes at The Corner:
Now, I’m not too good with dates, but I’m pretty sure there was no Islam at “the time of Jesus.” And that’s not the kind of slip that happens when you’re in a hurry, like writing “there” for “their” — that’s the kind of thing that happens when a completely uninformed person substitutes political correctness for reality.
Click over for more on the PC-side of the WSJ.
Meanwhile, as John Hinderaker notes at the heavily-trafficked Power Line, another error frequently creeps into newspaper coverage of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:”
The New York Times’s Caucus blog reported tonight:
Sixty-one senators have now expressed support for repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, appearing to clear the way for passage if Democrats can bring the bill to a vote before the holidays.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is not “the military’s policy.” It is a federal law, 10 U.S.C. Sec. 654. DADT was imposed on the military by Congress. This mistake is made by reporters frequently, but that does not excuse it.
John adds, somewhat mischievously, “As always, it is a mystery how such basic factual errors get past the presumed battery of editors that review articles and editorials in our leading newspapers.”
Fortunately, there are scrupulously honest, non-partisan groups such as “PolitiFact” to keep tabs on them…
Update: Fortunately, newspapers above the 49th parallel are much more honest brokers of the truth — or not.
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