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Fact-checking Globe columnists
By adamg on Tue, 08/19/2008 - 1:49pm
Yesterday, we had Kevin Cullen declaring Delaware a Confederate state.
Today, Elias finds two factual errors in Adrian Walker's pointed, if schizo column on the former firefighter running for Jim Marzilli's seat (pointed because it's a poke in the eye of Boston firefighters, schizo because two-thirds of the way down, Walker tells us that voters in that district, which does not include Boston, don't care about the firefighter issue, and so he suddenly veers into education):
Honestly, does anyone fact check anything anymore at the Boston Globe?
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Comments
Not just the Globe
I was reading an article at the NYT on Bear Grylls (host of "Man vs Wild"). It said his name was "Mitchell Winston Grylls". The only place that name ever appeared was a vandalized version of the Wikipedia article on him (his real name was "Edward Michael Grylls"). I called them that day and left a correction tip on their phone line as well as an e-mail. It took the NYT almost a week to finally correct it:
I dunno what's worse: the fact that it took them 5 days to run the correction and correct the online version or the fact that their reporter used Wikipedia for a primary source...when the guy's own website describes how he got the "Bear" moniker in school because his name was Eddy, rhymes with Teddy, and the kids mocked him by calling him Bear.
The whole Delaware being in
The whole Delaware being in the Confederacy thing should have been fact checked. Deleware was a slave state early on, and was still , more in theory then practice, a slave state at the breakout of the civil war. That being said the government of Delware was behind the Union and was not going to turn Confederate on them. I presume its because they had more in common with the north by that point, and also they must have been in quite the precarious position squeezed against the Atlantic Ocean, Im quite sure if they did join the Confederates Delware wouldnt exist today.
Slavery in Delaware
Pretty minimal by the time of the Civil War:
http://www.slavenorth.com/delaware.htm
Deleware was a slave state
Thats what I said
It was still a "slave state" regardless of how uncommon it had become.
I wasn't disagreeing
Just providing a link for people (such as errant Globe columnists) to find more details.
;~}
I apoligize for the
I apoligize for the defensive tone then :)
I would have sent him to wikipedia, but obviously that doesnt work out so well for other Globe columnists either. Maybe he just needed to pay more attention to history in the 8th grade.
Party Time! Excellent!
I think he got his information from Wayne's World:
"Imagine being able to be magically whisked away to . . . Delaware. 'Hi, I'm in Delaware.'"
That statement makes about as much sense as Cullen's article.
He should have just gotten
He should have just gotten his information from that famous Delawarian Joe Biden, Joe only lifts his information from the best sources.
Other slave states on the Union side
were Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Anyone who writes about the Civil War, even in passing, should understand the difference between "Union state" and "free state".
"Correction: Because of
"Correction: Because of reporting errors, a column by Adrian Walker in the City and Region section on Tuesday misstated the town that state Senate candidate Ken Donnelly served as a firefighter. Donnelly retired from the Lexington department. In addition, US Representative Edward Markey represents most of the Fourth Middlesex District, which Donnelly seeks to represent, in Congress."
The guy did 35 years, retired as a lieutenant. He sounds like (with apologies to Howie...LOL) a good jake.
Adrian Walker has had his own problems. I can look past that. Poor journalism shouldn't be one of them.
Does this mean the whole Marzilli angle is just insane BS? He's running against Markey, I presume.
Oh, the ninties just called on my cell phone. They want their dial up back.
No, you are confused
Donnelly and Hurd are indeed running against Marzilli, who is still on the ballot but no longer considers himself to be running for re-election. (By the time he was arrested, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot.)
Ed Markey has nothing to do with any of this. I don't think he is opposed for re-election (but I haven't checked).