| Sincere kudos to Steve Allen Adams at West Virginia Watchdog for admitting where he was wrong in writing a poorly sourced story that attempted to create a false link between Nick Rahall and a terrorist organization. Too bad his mea culpa comes after the damage is done. For Spike Maynard, the article already had served its purpose and Adam's apology cannot change the damage done by the false associations created by the article and the embarrassment about bigotry caused by Spike's commercial.
However, Adams at least has owned up to his part in this embarrassment to the state after he was called out on it by FactCheck.org.
Adams loses some points, however, by adding qualifiers to his retraction:
The story I wrote in February about Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and funding from groups with alleged Hamas ties is one such story that, if I could turn back time, I probably wouldn't have written.
To be clear I didn't make anything up, but the information that I based that story on wasn't as solid as I had thought it was. On top of that it's a poorly-written story that, had an editor read it and quizzed me beforehand the way Factcheck.org did after the fact, probably would have been spiked.
There's no "probably" about it. WorldNetDaily is called WingNutDaily for a reason. It's a rightwing propaganda site and too often a factfree zone. The site has aggressively pushed with more than 500 posts on the topic the conspiracy theory about President Obama's birth certificate and this is the site that Adams relied on for information to make his spurious claim. Here's FactCheck.org on those conspiracy theories of "birthers" like WorldNetDaily:
FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.
Maybe Adams should stick to reality based sites instead of wingnut sites if he has a serious interest in the truth.
Adams also needs to look a bit deeper inwardly. He writes:
There is no staff here at West Virginia Watchdog, just me. I'm a one-man shop, which means that I don't have the safeguards that your newspaper reporter has. While I often poke at my newspaper brethren, the reporter/editor relationship is one that is very important. Having someone to check your work for inaccuracies and poorly-worded thoughts is vital to a good story. Despite not having such a system I do the best I can with the tools I am given.
However, to jump to the conclusion that I'm for Rahall's opponent in the 3rd District congressional race, as at least one blog has done, is unfair. I have fairly covered both parties, and all candidates as evenly as I can.
I believe he thinks he is sincerely trying. But just as an editor could help him spot when he is blind to things poorly written (a flaw we all share at times) he needs to recognize that he might not see when he is putting his thumb on the scales to favor one side over another. The fact that he jumped on such a clearly false story about Rahall should give him pause about whether he has really "fairly covered both parties." The fact he even touted the disgraced former judge Spike Maynard as a candidate for WV-03 is another misstep that should make him step back.
A site that wants to be an independent watchdog, and one is needed, should have hammered against the idea of someone with as corrupt a history as Spike jumping into the race. There also are other signs that show which way his site tilts. Has he written stories critically about Shelley Moore Capito and David McKinley? I take him for his word that he has. But we've published numerous posts on this site criticizing nearly every Democrat in the state at one time or another and that does not give us an claim to being an objective site. That's not our goal. We're a site that supports Democrats and progressive causes and we're honest about it.
To conclude, Adam's retraction is honestly appreciated by me and I am sure others for what it was: an attempt to set the record straight. I also hope with real sincerity that Adams takes this opportunity to come away from this a better blogger. If he wants to be a vigilant watchdog for the state, he should learn where his blind spots might be. |
