Update II: TIME has posted a correction to the article, correcting much of the error within. While I realize this probably had nothing to do with my efforts here, I'm claiming victory anyway.
When I was a college student taking journalism classes (in the dark ages, fifteen years ago), the scariest thing a professor could write on an assignment I turned in was "FACT ERROR." Any -- and I mean ANY -- innacuracy meant a 50-point hit on the final grade for that assignment. Because of that experience, I earned a tremendous respect for the journalistic ethic of accuracy.
Apparently TIME writer Massimo Calabresi does not share that respect for accuracy. The article Bloggers on the Bus, appearing on TIME.com yesterday, is riddled with fact errors.
The article is TIME's shot at the Edwards blogger controversy, and it's crap (which will be no surprise to many here). Below the fold you'll see the text of a message I sent the writer this morning containing at least some of the errors. You'll find more of the errors in this Chris Bowers diary at mydd.com.
I hope you'll join me in writing TIME to ask for corrections. UPDATE: The writer's email address is:
massimo_calabresi@timemagazine.com
Good Morning:
Your current piece in Time (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/ 0,8599,1587018-2,00.html) contains several fact errors, as I've noted below:
"In 2005, John Thune, the Democratic candidate for Senate in South Dakota, paid bloggers to attack supporters of his opponent, then Senate majority leader Tom Daschle." First, Senator Thune is certainly not a Democrat, nor was he a candidate for anything in 2005.
"Edwards almost always wins the nonscientific but closely watched daily straw poll organized by liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas." Their is no "daily straw poll" on the Daily Kos site - it's primarily a monthly occurrence.
Simple fact-checking would have corrected these errors. I am not a practicing journalist, but my journalism professor in college made a policy of deducting 50 points for each fact error in an assignment turned in for credit. By my count, you are sitting on, at best, a 150-point deficit for this assignment.
My concern is that if you made these errors, what other errors might appear in the piece that I did not catch? Therefore, why would I or any other reader be able to trust you, and by extension, Time? This is a serious concern for me - I and millions of other Americans need to depend on resources like your magazine to bring me honest news, and I've reached a point at which I cannot count your writing as truth. Where am I to find real news?
I hope you will correct these errors at the first opportunity.
Thank you for your time and attention,
ThirstyGator's real name
Gainesville, FL