Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 8:29 AM by Gene

A POP-UP BLOGGER OF THE MILLENNIUM (brought to you by AMERICAN EXPRESS) on THE MEMO OF THE CENTURY:

So it seems clear what happened: The Post originally wrote a story that explicitly claimed that the "talking points memo" was drafted and distributed by the Republican leadership. That version of the story went out over the paper's wire service and was picked up by dozens of news outlets. Before the paper went to press, however, someone apparently realized that they had no basis for attributing the memo to Republicans, and the key language was deleted from the story that actually appeared in print. That story said: "An unsigned one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters." And ever since, reporter Mike Allen and others at the Post have said that they never meant to imply that the memo was created or distributed by Republicans.

This position seems disingenuous. The Washington Post did distribute a version of the story that explicitly attributed the memo to the GOP's leadership. And even in the revised version that appeared in print, the implication that the "talking points memo" was a Republican strategy document is clear.

Yet the Post has done nothing to correct or retract the version of its story that apparently went out on the evening of March 19. And to our knowledge, not a single one of the dozens of newspapers and other news outlets that printed the false claim that the memo was circulated by the Republican leadership has retracted or corrected the claim either.

STILL, there may be a story here: The memo in question is a pathetic piece of work. It is on a blank piece of paper with no letterhead, signature, or identification. It gets the Senate bill number wrong, misspells Terri Schiavo's name, and is full of typographical errors. The only people reported to have distributed it (by the New York Times) were Democratic staffers. And--most fundamentally--it is odd to think that the Republican leadership would produce a "talking points" memo discussing what great politics the Schiavo case was for Republicans. Those aren't talking points; not for Republicans, anyway.

MORON.

P. S. Hey POP-UPS! BAD NEWS! Both the NEW IE AND FIREFOX BLOCK POP-UPS! I think we ought to team with WALTER "SPYWARE" WINCHELL!!!!!!!!!! and launch an R&D OPERATION to DEFEAT THESE EFFORTS!