The Star Tribune regrets the story
It has been four days since the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran the lame New York Times Air Ameriscam story in lieu of any original reporting of its own, and five days since the New York Times corrected the glaring error in the Ties story that was instantly highlighted by Brian Maloney and others on the Internet. Today the Star Tribune finally runs its own correction on the story:
• A New York Times story on Page A9 Saturday misquoted comments made on the air by Al Franken, the host of an Air America radio program. Referring to Evan Cohen, a former network official whom Franken accused of having engineered a loan from a Bronx social service agency to the network, Franken said: "I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations, which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul."The Star Tribune's correction is a truncated version of the Times's own correction:
An article yesterday about state and city investigations of a loan made by a Bronx social service agency to the liberal radio network Air America quoted incorrectly from comments made on the air by Al Franken, the host of an Air America program. Referring to Evan M. Cohen, a former official of the network whom Mr. Franken accused of having engineered the loan, from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, Mr. Franken said: "I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations, which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul." (He did not say: "I don't know why he did it. I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul."The New York Times correction, posted on the same day it ran its story, makes a serious effort to communicate the error in its original story; the Times seems to want its readers to understand. Why would the Star Tribune shorten and obscure the correction to a story it ran four days ago? Given the fact that the Star Tribune has pulled the Times story from its Web site, I think it's fair to infer that the Strib regrets bothering with the story at all, and doesn't particularly care if its readers don't get it right.
Maloney and Michelle Malkin, by contrast, think Air Ameriscam is an interesting story and have covered it like serious journalists. Maloney's current installment is "Al's priorities." Michelle devotes her column today to the story: "Helping Al Franken find a swindler."
UPDATE: Michael Valois writes:
I emailed the New York Times and asked them about the transcript of Al Franken's on-air Air America remarks on the Gloria Wise scandal that Alan Feuer attributed to the New York Attorney General's Department of Investigation.By contrast with the Times, the Star Tribune's sheer complacency is especially striking.Here is the reply I received last night:
Dear Mr. Valois:I have your letter about the unfortunately flawed article we published Friday about the Bronx Boys Club. I certainly wish we had not erred in our quotation of Al Franken, but am glad we could at least correct it immediately. As for the transcript, we are not prepared to discuss our sources in that regard, but I am confident that no further correction of the article is necessary. Thanks for writing, and for holding The Times to a high standard.
Best, Bill Borders, senior editor
