Democracy Dies at Washington Post: James Woods Issues Brilliant Response to WaPo's 'Editor's Note'
The Washington Post has sort-of-but-not-really apologized for its reporting on the Covington Catholic story. For his part, conservative actor James Woods isn’t buying it.
The apology that wasn’t came in the form of an “editor’s note” that dropped just as the weekend hit — and, of course, shortly after The Post got hit with a $250 million lawsuit by the family of Covington teen Nicholas Sandmann.
“A Washington Post article first posted online on Jan. 19 reported on a Jan. 18 incident at the Lincoln Memorial. Subsequent reporting, a student’s statement and additional video allow for a more complete assessment of what occurred, either contradicting or failing to confirm accounts provided in that story — including that Native American activist Nathan Phillips was prevented by one student from moving on, that his group had been taunted by the students in the lead-up to the encounter, and that the students were trying to instigate a conflict,” the note read.
“The high school student facing Phillips issued a statement contradicting his account; the bishop in Covington, Ky., apologized for the statement condemning the students; and an investigation conducted for the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School found the students’ accounts consistent with videos,” it added. “Subsequent Post coverage, including video, reported these developments: ‘Viral standoff between a tribal elder and a high schooler is more complicated than it first seemed’; ‘Kentucky bishop apologizes to Covington Catholic students, says he expects their exoneration’; ‘Investigation finds no evidence of “racist or offensive statements” in Mall incident.'”
“A Jan. 22 correction to the original story reads: Earlier versions of this story incorrectly said that Native American activist Nathan Phillips fought in the Vietnam War. Phillips said he served in the U.S. Marines but was never deployed to Vietnam.”
The Post also said it had deleted an erroneous tweet regarding Phillips … and then showed the tweet so that everyone could see it again.
The Post has issued an Editor’s Note about updates to its initial coverage of the Jan. 18 incident at the Lincoln Memorial: https://t.co/rhzKZ1715K
We’ve also deleted this Jan. 19 tweet in light of later developments. For more, see the Editor’s Note. pic.twitter.com/O7qCSnBMPO
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 1, 2019
Even then, a representative for The Post seemed relatively miffed the paper had to do this much.
“While we do not accept the characterizations and contentions regarding our reporting of the incident at the Lincoln Memorial, we have taken steps to address the concerns expressed to us,” Washington Post Vice President for Communications Kristine Corrati Kelly told Reason.
That was it. No retraction. No real corrections.
And all of it delivered weeks after all this information was available to them. Might this perhaps have had to do with the lawsuit?
Woods was decidedly not impressed.
WARNING: The following tweet contains mildly vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
“It took a $250M lawsuit for the #WaPoWankers to retract their #FakeNews coverage of the Media and Hollywood jihad against the #CovingtonChildren,” he tweeted Saturday.
“Without the lawsuit the @washingtonpost lies would have been burned into internet lore forever. #DemocracyDiesAtWashingtonPost”
It took a $250M lawsuit for the #WaPoWankers to retract their #FakeNews coverage of the Media and Hollywood jihad against the #CovingtonChildren. Without the lawsuit the @washingtonpost lies would have been burned into internet lore forever. #DemocracyDiesAtWashingtonPost https://t.co/vajFlJerJg
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 2, 2019
Indeed, without the lawsuit, The Post’s reporting may have simply ended up being something conservatives held as evidence of how the American legacy news media was in the fall of Rome stage while liberals pretended there was nothing to talk about.
Instead, the The Post had to begrudgingly admit it may not have gotten everything right, although it’s totally not their fault and really, they shouldn’t even have to apologize for it.
Have fun with that, guys. I’m sure if the suit doesn’t get settled before it goes to court, there’s a very good chance this attitude ends up earning The Post the enmity of a jury.
At the very least, it’s going to keep on earning the paper a lot of James Woods tweets.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
