A scary quote

Here is what former newsman and now, allegedly, respected journalism scholar Marvin Kalb has to say about the White House reaction in the wake of the Newsweek fiasco:

"This is hardly the first time that the administration has sought to portray the American media as inadequately patriotic," said Marvin Kalb, a senior fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. "They are addressing the mistake, and not the essence of the story. The essence of the story is that the United States has been rather indelicate, to put it mildly, in the way that they have treated prisoners of war."

"They are addressing the mistake, and not the essence of the story?"

Is he joking?

I always thought that FACTS were what we were supposed to be reporting, not "essences," whatever they are.

If we get to a point where we gloss over factually incorrect stories because we THINK their "essence" is true, it's a sad, sad day for journalism.

Here is a link to the entire New York Times story, by the way.