Great Moments in Print Journalism

The dead tree media has had a tough week, as evidenced by these two stories. First of all, we have the L.A. Times which decided to run a quote from Wyoming governor (h/t Hugh Hewitt):

In Wyoming, for example, Gov. Dave Freudenthal last April decreed that the Endangered Species Act is no longer in force and that the state "now considers the wolf as a federal dog," unworthy of protection.

One minor problem - the governor never said that. In fact, the quote had been created by a guy last April as part of an April Fool's joke and has been circulating around the Internet since then. The Times had this to say:

"The reporter saw it on the Internet and had talked to the governor in the past, so she was familiar enough with the way he talks and writes that she thought it sounded authentic and she didn't check, which she should have," Lauter said.

In other words, the Times reporter believed it to be true because it fit her preconceived notions, so she went with it without doing even the basic checking. Pretty sloppy.

And then we have the Sacramento Bee which ran the infamous UMass Dartmouth Patriot Act hoax story...three days after the Standard-Times newspaper of New Bedford, MA had printed its correction. Once again, you have a newspaper picking up a story it wants to believe, but doesn't bother to check it out. Running it three days after a correction had already been posted is inexcusable.

No wonder their circulation numbers are tanking.