Is Bill Hamilton Serious?
Didja hear? There's a rumor that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim. No really, I read it in the Washington Post....
The first rule of recovering from a bout of shitty journalism is to stop defending it. That's true whether you're the New Republic, the National Review, or the esteemed Post.
Unfortunately, Bill Hamilton, the Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor in charge of politics, is standing by his paper's front-page smear of Obama.
His excuse (via Politico.com)?: "We didn't say it was a false rumor. To me, a rumor is not true."
Now, I don't know how you get to be Assistant Managing Editor of one of the nation's newspapers of record without a basic command of the English language. But to belabor the obvious, the definition of rumor is not untrue information, it's: "A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin."
That's the thing about rumors: Some are true and some aren't. Rumors that Kevin Garnett was headed to Boston this summer? All too true. Rumors he was getting traded to Golden State? Tragically false.
Hamilton's excuse that it would have somehow been redundant to call a rumor "false" is hackery, and he knows it. And the same word applies to the story he edited.
The job of any newspaper worth its pulp is to verify information. But far from debunking demonstrably false rumors about Obama, Hamilton and the Post sloppily propagated them.
That's the truth. Hamilton and his paper need to acknowledge that, stop clinging to their story, and issue an apology and a correction.
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What was it with the Alice's Red Queen ... about words meaning what she wants it to mean?
Welcome to our brave new world.
"We didn't say it was a false rumor. To me, a rumor is not true."
If the Post is a legitimate newspaper publisher, worthy of the public trust, Mr. Hamilton is now looking for employment. The quotation is all anyone needs to see that he obviously is unable to meet even minimal qualifications for a job in journalism.
If Mr. Hamilton is still employed, it is proof positive that the Post is in some business other than journalism. It may be in the business of public relations, campaign flackery, neocon mouthpiece or corporate whore but definitely not journalism.
This post is based on the assumption that my copies of various dictionaries have not been superceded, at least with regard to the words rumor, journalism, legitimate, qualified, proof and quotation.
"We didn't say it was a false rumor. To me, a rumor is not true."
What hit me about this was not so much that the guy couldn't define rumor. What got to me was that if he really believed that rumors aren't true then why did he let it on the front page of the WAPO?
By saying this hasn't he admitted that the WAPO put something false on its front page?
Which is why the unwashedrag is not fit for our old outhouse, and yes, I grew up with one. It has become a sad pathetic piece of paper, just barely readable, and with that rubbish, it's truly flushable. My cat could do a better job than they did with that hit job of a piece. That rag is sinking fast and furious. Truly sad.
I gave up on The Washington Post. There are a few decent columnists left but not enough to make me want to read it any more. It has really shifted to the right. I loathe George Will; what a smug, arrogant windbag. The NYTimes at least has Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert.
Here is in a nutshell is what is the problem with journalism and journalists, nowadays.
But we do not need to go farther than the Washington Press Corp, when it interviews,
or hold "press conferences".
Sniveling, kowtowing, full of fear asses,
who would not know greatness if it struck them in the face.
They had to kiss a lot of ass to reach their position; and they only want people with connection and behind kissers.
Thus we get this tripe:
"We didn't say it was a false rumor. To me, a rumor is not true."
Enough said.
I read that quote this morning and tried to find Hamilton's email address so I could send him the dictionary definition of the word "rumor." I couldn't find it, but glad to see you, and others, helping him with the obvious.
What's up with so many people making statements that are either demonstrably false or belie a shred of credibility (see: Bush finding out about the NIE 5 days ago).
The days of Woodward and Bernstein are certainly long gone. This is reprehensible to publish something like this. Who do they think they are- the (former?) N.Y. Times??
The Washington Post is now controlled by neocons and many of them want Mrs. Clinton to be president.
These freaks only understand money, therefore, file a lawsuit for slander and see what happens.
They owe no one an apology! They are a right-wing propaganda machine and they are proud of it. They demonstrate it on a daily basis. If you want objective journalism, read the UK Guardian. If you want the latest right-wing talking points, read the WaPo. They don't even PRETEND to be objective anymore. Why should they? They know what they are and they know everyone else knows tool
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