"Convenient" Error in Des Moines Register?
08/07/2007
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF
A reader notified me that this morning, days before Saturday's Ames Straw Poll, the Des Moines Register published an article by Lisa Rossi, with this first sentence:

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul sketched out his vision of a limited government that includes the abolition of the Federal Reserve, the end of federal involvement in education and amnesty for immigrants in the nation illegally.

Shortly later they published this retraction:

From Des Moines Register state editor Dan Piller, regarding your posts: We hear you.

Ron Paul is against illegal immigration. In the process of editing Lisa Rossi's story, Paul's opposition to amnesty was lumped in with his opposition to the Federal Reserve and federal involvement in education.

The lead paragraph in the story thus could be read, and many did read it that way, that Paul is in favor of amnesty for immigrants when in fact he is not.

The Register regrets the error.

The offending sentence was changed to:

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul sketched out his vision of a limited government that includes the abolition of the Federal Reserve and the end of federal involvement in education.

Paul also reiterated his opposition to illegal immigration.

The Des Moines Library confirms that the error made it into the print edition-where the real damage will be done.

This suggests to me the possibility that GOP candidates sponsored by wealthy and corporate interests are scared of the immigration issues—so they feel compelled to play dirty tricks on candidates like Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter that have reasonable records on the issue. The stakes here are very, very high. A simple apology for potentially changing the race early on here isn't nearly enough.

Iowans deserve some accurate, in-depth reporting on the immigration stands of all the GOP candidates.

Print Friendly and PDF