The NYTimes today posts a new article by Raymond Hernandez alleging (not a word I often use for NYTimes articles) "Another Case of Blumenthal Misstating Vietnam Service". The evidence in its entirety:
The most recent article unearthed is one published in The Milford Mirror, a weekly, describing an appearance he made at a May 2007 Memorial Day Parade in Milford, Conn., attended by local officials, military people and the relatives of a local man killed while serving in Iraq.
As people gathered around a bandstand to give praise to fallen veterans, the article said, Mr. Blumenthal recalled his days during the Vietnam War.
"In Vietnam," Mr. Blumenthal said, according to the article, "we had to endure taunts and insults, and no one said, ‘Welcome home.’ I say welcome home."
The rest of the article is a reprise of the initial one, published on May 17th, 2010.
So let's take a calm look at this new "case of misspeaking" and show how Mr. Hernandez is ruining the credibility of himself and the paper he works for.
"In Vietnam we had to endure taunts and insults, and no one said, ‘Welcome home.’ I say welcome home."
Obvious to anyone whose name isn't Linda MacMahon, and even probably to her, Blumenthal cannot mean that the US military serving in Vietnam endured taunts and insults in Vietnam. So when he said "In Vietnam we...", he's not using the preposition to locate the "we" geographically "in Vietnam". He's also not saying that he served in Vietnam. The construction is ungrammatical, a shortcut to say "In [the case of the] Vietnam [War], we had to endure taunts and insults."
Is he implying that he came home with Vietnam Veterans? No. Because uniformed Vietnam Era servicemen, whether serving in-country or not, whether on active duty or not, could have endured taunts and insults.
"...and no one said, ‘Welcome home.’ I say welcome home."
This part is grammatical. But Hernandez reads into it: "...and no one said [to us] 'Welcome home.' I say welcome home."
The NYTimes article doesn't link or reprint the original Milford Mirror article. I couldn't find it with Google.
This should never have made it past the editor's desk.
I'll probably disagree with many Kossacks on this: I think Blumenthal has done himself a disservice by how he's spoken about his military service, and also how his campaign has handled the resulting press. I think we do him a disservice when we try to deflect from him the responsibility that's his and his alone. Linda MacMahon and Hernandez are capitalizing on it for different reasons, but Blumenthal should know better than to have ever been ambiguous about his service, notwithstanding the times that he was clear about it. I understand the anger that a lot of people feel about what he implied and sometimes said outright.
But this example is bullshit, and the NYTimes needs to understand that.
Here's how to write to them:
PUBLIC EDITOR
To reach Clark Hoyt, who represents the readers, e-mail public@nytimes.com or call (212) 556-7652.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
To send comments and suggestions (about news coverage only) or to report errors that call for correction, e-mail nytnews@nytimes.com or leave a message at 1-888-NYT-NEWS. To contact a reporter, click on the byline of one of his or her articles
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
E-mail to letters@nytimes.com.
UPDATE:
Someone's comment implies that Blumenthal has put this issue behind him. For the views of a different readership, check out the comments in the New Haven Register to Blumenthal's letter of explanation. Here's the response in the Washington Post.