When this Herald-Palladium item by Anna Clark floated up on Drudge a couple of days ago, I wondered why it didn’t create a news frenzy. Perhaps others noticed, as I did, that the word “wrong” in Clark’s report had been wrestled down to a single word quote.
Tenet: CIA made errors
Tenet called the war on Iraq “wrong” in a speech Wednesday night to 2,000 members of The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan at Lake Michigan College’s Mendel Center. He did not elaborate.
Today, the Herald-Palladium offers this “clarification”;
Former CIA Director George Tenet told the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan on Wednesday that the United States was wrong on its pre-war intelligence in Iraq, but an article in Thursday’s Herald-Palladium may have put the comment in an incorrect context.
The story said Tenet called the war in Iraq “wrong.” However, after reviewing the reporter’s notes (Tenet barred reporters from using tape recorders), the newspaper now believes Tenet used the word “wrong” in the context of U.S. intelligence, not on the direct question of whether the United States should be in Iraq.
To their credit, I don’t think the original story has been airbrushed (yet), but they should really add this disclaimer to the original online item.