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December 26, 2003
A corrected retraction of a corrected offer to improperly retract a corrected story?
....which is another way of saying that this post is an "UPDATE." But the original post is so far down on the blog that no one would notice or care if I updated it there. Anyway, in that earlier post, I expressed the hope that this story (that gay demonstrations were being censored out of the Lincoln Memorial's historical video) would turn out to be bogus so that I could "issue a retraction!" I think I offered the impossible. It wasn't my story at all, so I don't think a retraction could ever be in order. Nor would a "correction" be appropriate, for technically neither would be mine to issue. In any event, Andrew Sullivan earlier cited this report of a tentative reversal of what may have been a tentative "decision": Footage of gay rights demonstrations will not be removed from a videotape shown at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, according to spokespeople from the National Park Service and the Human Rights Campaign. Earlier reports in various news outlets said the gay images would be removed.This is puzzling, because when stories change like that it makes me wonder whether there really was a decision, or whether instead the waters were being tested as they were during the June controversy over whether gays in the Justice Department should be allowed to celebrate Pride Day (or whatever it's called now). Totally aside from the merits of this issue, I have a question: Has "idea floating" (through various media reports, rumors, and leaks) become a new way of determining public policy? If so, does that mean that the media are a de facto branch of government? I am not sure I like that, because big media have a very poor track record when it comes to issuing retractions.....
posted by Eric on 12.26.03 at 06:11 PM |
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