NYT Gets Facts Wrong Again

Iowa Voice:

But of course, they’re not pushing an agenda, right? Riiiiiight.

On March 18, the New York Times published this story about female soldiers who served in Iraq and are now having problems as a result.

One of the women mentioned in the story claims to have been sexually assaulted twice in the last few years and that she suffers severe mental problems as a result of being deployed to, and injured in, Iraq. Her story is gripping because of the vivid details given.

One problem though: she never was sent to Iraq. She was in Guam the whole time.

The NYTimes did insert a correction in the online edition today, a full week after they published this story (anyone know about the print edition at all?), but knew full well when they went to print with this article that portions of it may have been inaccurate. Where have I seen that before?

The Times contacted the Navy just three days before this story went to print, not exactly giving them time to look into it. Nevertheless, the Navy DID provide enough info to the Times to where they should have questioned this woman’s story, at least to the point of leaving her out entirely.

Of course there’s NO agenda at work here, folks. None at all.

As I said in the opening: riiiiiight.

For the record, nobody (so far) is questioning the veracity of the other women’s claims in this article. But it shows that in pursuit of a story that fits the agenda, the press is willing to believe anything a person says, as long as it advances the agenda.