Matt Yglesias

21 Responses to “Mark Kleiman’s Letter to Andy Alexander”

1. flounder Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 11:32 am

   I think Lois Romano comes out of this very bad. According to her, the definition of “opinion” is the ability to lie and not suffer any consequences.

   Opinion “Journalism” at the Post?: On Sunday, the Washington Post printed a climate change denial column by George Will that contained several demonstrable falsehoods. Despite the loud chorus of critics pointing out Will’s factual flaws, Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt has refused to comment on the errors and the column has not received a correction. Will has another column in the Post today, but it too has no correction attached to it for his last column’s obvious factual mistakes. Are columnists allowed to make up their own facts, in addition to opining, nowadays? I don’t understand the Post’s unwillingness to print a correction here.
   Lois Romano: Columnists have latitude in expressing opinions.

2. howard Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 11:38 am

   flounder, this response by romano (and one gets the same thing at the nytimes), is evidence of a very, very, very profound confusion in contemporary newsrooms about “opinion” and “fact,” and in particular, a profound ignorance of lord keynes’ point that people “are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.”

   to help romano out: it is a fact that her comment here is profoundly stupid and mealy-mouthed. it is my opinion that she is dumb as a rock or, alternatively, a person lacking in any sense of integrity who merely echoes what her bosses tell her to say.

   by her standards, if i actually had an oped column in the wapo and i said she’s dumb as a rock, i’m merely taking advantage of my “latitude in expressing opinions.”

3. wvng Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 11:39 am

   This is what I sent:

   I was stunned to read George Will’s error filled column disputing global warming, and even more stunned to find you charging to his defense based on a willfully false reading of the ACRC data, a reading that the ACRC itself disputed. Your clear duty was to issue a correction, actually a refutation, of Will’s entire premise. Instead you supported it with further willfully false interpretation of the ACRC that was apparently based on the jokers at Daily Tech.

   Which leads me to question if I can trust the factual accuracy of anything in your paper.

   Rachel Maddow made an interesting and related point the other week in regards to Republican misinformation about the stimulus bill. She suggested that journalists should privilege correct information over incorrect information.

   You might try that sometime.

4. southpaw Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 12:05 pm

   Andy Alexander’s email is here, in case others are so inclined.

5. Hedley Lamarr Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 1:12 pm

   I found Kleiman’s letter to be unclear. He, like the Post, needs an editor.

6. San Diegan Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 1:48 pm

   I think the “Washington Post” should consider that there are more than just the bloggers getting on their case here. I, for one, in this world of Facebook nuts, actually have been posting various articles and blog postings to my Facebook page. I know that some of my “friends,” who are not voracious blog readers like myself, are reading my postings and are commenting on them too. Overall, “Washington Post” is quickly loosing its legitimacy as a news source.

7. marcus Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 3:01 pm

   I expect the Washington Post will file Kleiman’s letter in the trash can, where it belongs. Meanwhile, George Will’s column will be seen by hundreds of thousands or millions of people, adding to the growing public skepticism towards global warming alarmism.

   Few people will even see, let alone care about, the deranged rants of Kleiman, Yglesias and other lefty bloggers.

8. caucus Says:
   February 21st, 2009 at 6:07 pm

   I just sent an email to UCLA suggesting that they fire Mark Kleiman.

9. joe from Lowell Says:
   February 22nd, 2009 at 10:36 pm

   You betcha, Marcus. George Will columns in the Washington Post control the political debate. In 2009.

   Whatever shall we do?

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