Worst Person in the World
New York Times Managing Editor Bill Keller could be the “Worst Person in the World” for printing William Kristal’s op-ed. Kristal’s article stated that Barack Obama was in church last year when Reverend Jeremiah Wright blamed the arrogance of the U.S. on a lot of global suffering (Psst, this is true– The U.S. does a lot of good plus a lot of bad in the world). The article was printed in spite of the Times being informed that the information was wrong. Once printed, the Obama campaign provided evidence that Obama was in Miami, and not in Chicago, on that date. The Times printed an online apology later that day
(In this column, I cite a report that Sen. Obama had attended services at Trinity Church on July 22, 2007. The Obama campaign has provided information showing that Senator Obama did not attend Trinity that day. I regret the error.)
One of the best right wing tactics is to get something out there whether it is right or wrong. Once it is out there, it is hard to get people to forget it - right or wrong. You can see this in instances like the suggestion that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama has never been a Muslim and there have been countless stories showing that he is not a Muslim. Despite this, 13% of Americans believe that he is because the right wing got the story out there (this figure is up from a previous 8%). I’m saddened to see the New York Times become apart of the right wing noise machine.
