Post alters Cheney story after blogger complains

2006-04-13

By Robert Niles: ThinkProgress offers up the latest example of blogs fact-checking another media outlet. In this case, bloggers used the video on the Washington Post's website to challenge a Post report on the Washington Nationals baseball club's opening day. Vice President Cheney threw out the ceremonial first pitch, eliciting boos from the crowd.

The Post's original report read:

The first pitch of the Washington Nationals' second season at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium was low and away, bouncing in the dirt before being scooped up by catcher Brian Schneider. For that, Vice President Cheney received a round of boos from the home crowd this afternoon.

Bloggers charged that phrasing did not reflect that the booing started as soon as Cheney walked on the field. The Post later changed the graf, but did not note that the article had been altered.

Vice President Cheney threw out the ceremonial first pitch, a right-handed toss that bounced in the dirt to the outside of the plate before being scooped up by catcher Brian Schneider. Cheney, booed by some as he walked to the mound, got even more catcalls after his throw -- a far cry from President Bush's fastball at last year's home opener

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Comments:

From Jon Garfunkel on April 16, 2006 at 4:40 PM

You've got to start calling fouls here. Now that WPNI.com has absorbed Slate, they could learn thing or two about how the online magazine has been doing online corrections for ten years now: fix the text, and make a note at the bottom. Or, here's an idea with more backbone: stick by the original copy and put a link to alternative accounts.

Meanwhile, the video page has this text: "Vice President Dick Cheney is greeted with a mixture of cheers and boos as he throws out the first pitch during Opening Day ceremonies at RFK Stadium on Tuesday."

That's what it sounds like to me. Is this the best that beat-the-press bloggers are up to today?

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