This morning, the New York Times ran a Bill Kristol column whose entire bloated argument balanced on a tenuous, factually incorrect fulcrum. Kristol claims that Obama can’t pretend he didn’t know his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was a controversial firebrand because Obama was in church when Wright started mouthing off. Kristol originally cited reporting that claimed Obama was at church on July 22, when Wright said the United States of White America was oppressing blacks.
Kristol and the
Times
have since issued an apology and a correction, but this was an especially preventable offense.
Slate
’s Map the Candidates tool
shows Obama spent the day in Florida, fruitlessly addressing Latinos in Miami.
But the
Times
didn’t even have to steer their browsers to
Slate
’s waters. Their
own candidate tracker
shows that Obama was far from Chicago that day, as well. Kristol relied on reporting from
conservative news site NewsMax.com
, which is sticking by their story. Last we checked, the
Times
didn’t rely on reporting from biased outlets like NewsMax. Kristol might, but the
Times
doesn’t.
