File under "Fact Checking": When I see small errors in the news, I am not surprised. But when I seem small errors that can give significantly wrong impressions, I make an effort to let the news source in question know of the mistake in the hope they will correct it.
I saw such an errorcommentary in today's Christian Science Monitor last night regarding Howard Dean's "confederate flag flap." The author asserted that Dean made the statement that sparked the controversy at the Rock the Vote debate. Here's the relevant paragraph:
By now almost everyone is familiar with the scene. Standing on stage with the rest of the chorus line of Democratic hopefuls, Mr. Dean refused to back off a suddenly controversial statement he'd made about a group of Southern voters. The former Vermont governor told the assembled crowd, "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." (emphasis added)
Apparently the author, Dante Chinni, is NOT familiar with the scene. As I think most people who have followed this story know, Dean didn't make the statement at the debate, he made it in a one-on-one interview with Thomas Beaumont of the Des Moines Register. As I understand it, Beaumont brought up the quote in a question, and Dean responded by repeating the shorthand version of the quote that Beaumont used.
I wrote to the Monitor yesterday evening to suggest that an editing error must have resulted in the commentary giving the incorrect impression. I received an out-of-office reply from some person's e-mail at the paper, but it doesn't appear to be the right person. The error is still up on the web site at the present time.