Okay, I know this might be a minor point, but there is already enough confusion and alternating timelines surrounding the Foley saga that I'm going to try this one more time.
A little less than 24 hours ago, I wrote a diary pointing out how the Washington Post made a blatant error in the Foley timeline -- saying Foley wrote the "overly-friendly" e-mails to the Louisiana page in 2004 when in fact, they were written in 2005. And how its seemed perhaps the author of that story -- one Jonathan Weisman -- apparently transcribed the incorrect 2004 date from a Republican source trying to plant the idea a Democrat in Rep. Alexander's office was responsible for leaking the emails to the press.
Well now, we have confirmation the correct date was 2005 after all. From a curious source.
The same Jonathan Weisman.
In Thursday's
Foley-a-thon at the Washington Post, Weisman writes:
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) and his chief of staff are to testify next week, presumably about e-mails Alexander's staff received from a former page. The 2005 e-mails from Foley, which asked the youth for a picture and what he wanted for his birthday, came to the attention of Stokke and Van Der Meid that fall, the speaker's office said.
And as of this writing, in spite of my polite letter last night to Mr. Weisman (and I can't believe I'm the only person on the planet who noticed the original error), there is still no correction on the original article.
So I need you guys to tell me....am I just nit-picking an insignificant error that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things?
Or am I justified in being alarmed that the person chronicling this important story for the Washington Post seems to making it up as he goes along, changing dates in an Orwellian exercise based on which "facts" fit his storyline better?
And that he in fact, seems to have accepted uncritically the incorrect date from a Republican pushing their "blame the Democrats" strategy?
And that he now writes a follow-up story contradicting his first account without admitting the original "spin" he swallowed hook, line and sinker?