First Fox News labels creepy Republican Foley as a Democrat, then the Associated Press follows the example, and takes it further by also marking Republican Dennis Hastert as a Democrat.
As others have more or less noted, this would not be such a big deal if Americans were known for being knowledgeable and informed citizens. Obviously, Americans are infamous for being grossly uninformed.
I'm beginning to feel like we are all characters in one of Orwell's novel. I think you know which one. How many journalists or media personnel have been 'outed' as on the Bush payroll, and how many have not yet been discovered?
As they say, just because I am paranoid, doesn't mean someone is not out to get me.
This is just plain weird.
The Brad Blog:
From Josh Marshall today…
Good Old Associated Press …
[Dobson] touched on the uproar over former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, D-Florida, who resigned Friday in a scandal over electronic messages he sent to former teenage male congressional pages.
The party affiliation that dare not speak its name.
Late Update: As of about 12:18 PM, the version of the AP story I linked to at the San Jose Mercury News has been corrected. But it must have been what the AP sent out over the wire. So I'm sure there are million more examples of it still out there. [End of Josh Marshall cite.]
Several of the outlets who ran AP's original "Foley is a Dem version," now have this correction notice at the bottom of their articles:
Correction: This story originally referenced Rep. Mark Foley as a Democrat. He is a Republican. The AP ran a similar correction 3 hours after it first moved on the wire.
Associated Press Fox News Foley Mark Foley Republicans Hastert Politics Pedophile Email Sex Scandal Foleygate News Florida Media O'Reilly Factor
