Comments on: Who among us hasn’t misquoted Kerry?

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:28:00 +0000

Fish: Joe Fitz doesn’t irritate me in the slightest. I haven’t read him in years. I almost always read Howie, because he’s interesting when he’s not just recycling his radio show. I think you know I don’t agree with him, either. It’s not the ideology.

By: o-fish-l

o-fish-l — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:02:00 +0000

Dan

You'll know when Joe Fitzgerald is gone, because the Herald will likely be gone the next day.

It's great to know that he irritates you so much that you resort to the kindergarten tactic, "let's pretend he doesn't exist." How appropriate for a guy who appears on the same channel as Sesame Street.

I think I speak for many of the 200,000 or so who pick up the Herald each day that we can easily get Eagan-like drivel, AP filler and endorsements of Nikki Tsongas from the Globe but the Globe just can't deliver a Joe Fitzgerald.

Fitzy and Carr are the only two saving the Herald from extinction. When it becomes all liberal (like Eagan) all the time, we'll choose the real thing.

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:35:00 +0000

Bruce: Fixed the Observer reference.

Who among us wouldn’t rely on the New York Times to quote Kerry correctly? I wouldn’t have double-checked, either. At the time you were writing, the quote hadn’t been debunked.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:53:00 +0000

Guilty as charged.

Okay, mea culpa. As you found in Nexis, I misquoted Kerry -- although I did it in the New York Observer, not the New York Sun.

My only explanation for this is that at the time, I saw it in the NY Times, heard it on CNN, Fox and NPR, and didn't bother to check.

I took it on face value that the quote was real, having heard it repeated in so many news outlets. Which is also why it's not attributed.

Had it only been in one publication, or cited by one columnist, I would have found a way to rewrite the sentence and squeeze it in, ie: "As New York's Kurt Andersen tells us John Kerry has asked..")

So yes, I'm guilty as charged - and just as I tell people you can't use Wikipedia, or Google as a primary source, the real lesson here is that we all have to double check everything.

By: Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:16:00 +0000

Joe Fitzgerald still writes a column for the Herald? Who knew?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:09:00 +0000

It’s the second time in less than a month that a Herald columnist has based a column around a misquote. Last month they ran a correction after Joe Fitzgerald wrote a piece on George Carlin, in which he quoted from his favorite “Carlin” piece — a syrupy piece of nonsense which actually turned out to have not been written by Carlin. Carlin disavowed it on his web site. At least Margery Eagan was basing her research on a columnist for the nation’s paper of record and not on one of those annoying chain e-mails.

By: Nial Liszt

Nial Liszt — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Kin ah git me a huntin license heah?

By: Rick in Duxbury

Rick in Duxbury — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:53:00 +0000

DK,
So if I follow you, you’re outraged that lazy journalists write stuff that echos their familiar, comfortable narrative rather than the facts? In other news, it got dark last night and water is wet. In a democracy, we also get the PRESS we deserve.

By: Suldog

Suldog — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:17:00 +0000

“Auto racing began as an opportunity for manufacturers to demonstrate that travel by automobiles was viable.”

Maybe some auto racing did, but certainly not NASCAR. It has it’s roots in running moonshine.

“Bootlegging began to create competition among the drivers of the moonshine cars and it was sport to see who had the fastest car. Over time, they would even collectively get together and have races on Sunday afternoons. All the local people would come out and spend a Sunday afternoon watching the races and that night, the drivers would turn their sport into work and run the illegal moonshine to secret buyers.

In 1938, Daytona Beach Florida would become the place of the first NASCAR race. Daytona Beach was a good place for racing because the beach sands were firm and the beach area was wide.”

From http://ezinearticles.com/?NASCAR—The-Backwoods-Roots&id=786944

(There are other sources, as well.)

I know this isn’t germane to the original posting, Dan, but I know so little, and when I come upon something I do know about, I like to show off…

By: Don, American

Don, American — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:24:00 +0000

NASCAR isn’t a political issue. It’s a matter of energy, and we’re wasting far too much of it so we can watch cars going around in circles. Auto racing began as an opportunity for manufacturers to demonstrate that travel by automobiles was viable. I, for one, have long since been convinced.