Oops: NY Times Corrects Its False Claim About Bush's Iraq Coalition
The New York Times fessed up in its Tuesday edition about an erroneous claim it made nearly two weeks earlier. Mark Landler, in his reporting on President Obama's September 10, 2014 prime time address on ISIS, asserted in an article the following morning that "unlike Mr. Bush in the Iraq war, Mr. Obama has sought to surround the United States with partners."
The liberal newspaper finally realized the false nature of the reporter's statement, and issued the following correction, which ran on page A-2:
An article on Sept. 11 about President Obama's speech to the nation describing his plans for a military campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, gave an incorrect comparison between efforts by the president to seek allies' support for his plans and President George W. Bush's efforts on such backing for the Iraq war. The approach Mr. Obama is taking is similar to the one Mr. Bush took; it is not the case that, "Unlike Mr. Bush in the Iraq war, Mr. Obama has sought to surround the United States with partners."
Landler wasn't alone in forwarding this misleading portrayal about the Iraq War. Earlier in September, Boston Globe reporter Bryan Bender bluntly issued an akin statement in a Twitter exchange with Fox News Channel contributor Richard Grenell: "Bush had no coalition." Grenell countered that 48 countries were actually part of that war effort.
Interestingly, as HotAir's Ed Morrissey pointed out on Tuesday, the Times issued a correction regarding a photo credit on Landler's article a mere two days later after it was published. Morrissey also spotlighted that Josh Lederman of the Associated Press Tweeted a similar claim as Landler and Bender on Monday.
— Matthew Balan is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Matthew Balan on Twitter.
