the motor city flip flop

OK, I have a question. Why is it that the front page of today’s Detroit News says that Kerry is behind in the Michigan polls? I read it this morning, and thought, “That’s not right. He’s got a lead in Michigan of at least two to three points.” I puzzled over it a while and then decided to hunt down the same article on-line so that I could link to it. The only problem — it wasn’t the same article.

Here’s a quote from the article entitled
“Bush, Kerry scrap over war in Iraq” as it appears on-line:

Of grave concern to Kerry are a series of polls in must-win Michigan showing his summer-long lead over the president dwindling. A poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Inside Michigan Politics newsletter, for example, found him in a statistical dead heat with the president, at 45 percent to 43 percent. Michigan has gone to the Democrat in the last three presidential cycles.

And here’s a scan I just did of the front page.

So, can someone tell me what’s going on?

Please don’t tell me that my faith in American journalists has been misplaced.

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15 Comments

  1. Kez Panel
    Posted October 1, 2004 at 8:07 pm | Permalink

    OCD has many positive traits, and this is one of them, and I think you’re onto something here. Have you contacted the newspaper, by letter to the editor, for comment? Give us the address and we’ll all write letters to the editor! I’m serious.

  2. Kez Panel
    Posted October 1, 2004 at 8:13 pm | Permalink

    Same article, as read online:

    “Slipping in polls nationally and in Michigan, Kerry accused Bush of rushing to war in Iraq…”

    I’m writing to the editor, please join me:

    Mark Silverman, Publisher & Editor: msilverman@detnews.com

    Letters to the Editor
    The Detroit News
    615 W. Lafayette
    Detroit, MI 48226

  3. mark
    Posted October 1, 2004 at 8:14 pm | Permalink

    Here’s how to reach them.

    http://www.detnews.com/search/staff.htm

    If I didn’t have to go and help with the baby, I’d write to them too.

    Thanks, Kez.

  4. Posted October 1, 2004 at 10:12 pm | Permalink

    Different audience, different adgenda right?

  5. Posted October 2, 2004 at 8:45 am | Permalink

    I don’t know that there’s necessarily a conspiracy afoot, but I thought it was worth pointing out. At the very least, it was bad reporting that they corrected on-line. I should check today and see if they mention it in their Corrections section.

  6. mark
    Posted October 2, 2004 at 2:39 pm | Permalink

    And apparently Fox News is making up quotes for Kerry.

    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_26.php#003553

    -Mark

  7. Posted October 2, 2004 at 3:32 pm | Permalink

    FOX news: Editor’s Note

    “Earlier Friday, FOXNews.com posted an item purporting to contain quotations from Kerry. The item was based on a reporter

  8. mark
    Posted October 2, 2004 at 7:12 pm | Permalink

    Fox News walks that line between fact and fiction like a drunk on the side of the road trying to complete a sobriety test – occasionally, in spite of their best intentions, they lose balance and go stumbling to one side or the other.

    Kez, did you hear back from the Detroit News?

  9. mark
    Posted October 2, 2004 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

    And then there

  10. Liz Trenchi
    Posted October 3, 2004 at 7:54 am | Permalink

    And let’s not forget the fact that Fox News is reporting on the fictitious group Communists for Kerry as though they are real.

    http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004/10/fox-news-snookered-again.html

    -Mrs. Trenchi,
    4th grade school teacher

  11. Posted October 4, 2004 at 10:49 am | Permalink

    Mark – Did you forget that the News is a right-wing-leaning newspaper?

  12. Tony Buttons
    Posted October 4, 2004 at 11:37 am | Permalink

    It’s amazing to me the kind of shit that passes for journalism these days. I’m not a bit surprised that most of the people I know get get their news filtered though bloggers who they trust to thrash the wheat from the chaf.

  13. mark
    Posted October 4, 2004 at 5:15 pm | Permalink

    Yeah, I’m a bit surprised that no one has really linked to this post. I thought that someone would think it was important. I guess not. Maybe the new television season is so compelling that they can’t drag themselves away.

  14. dennis barger
    Posted October 5, 2004 at 1:46 am | Permalink

    yeah it does amaze me the kind of shit that passes itself off as journalism….

    Micheal Moore is obviously still wearing a press pass and sitting in the press booth at every political convention, Dan Rather still is calling himself a journalist and MTV news doing play by play of the rock the vote concerts and the anti-bush rethoric as trying to help people get out and vote is the best…. so before you cry me a river about fox news….take the time to realize your favorite news channels are yours because they lean the way you think, and your least favorite ones are that way because they support your opponents side….if you don’t like fox news, don’t watch it….dan rather has all the forged documents you want to see over on CBS…it may not be true but man it should be…right???

  15. Posted October 5, 2004 at 2:33 pm | Permalink

    As far as fact checking is concerned, comparing CBS and Fox News is like comparing The New York Times to the Rush Limbauh newsletter.

    Let’s not pretend that Fox News checks sources before running to air. Further, they NEVER admit they were wrong.

    Anyone remember the downed pilot in the Tigris river? The one that the Iraqis “burned out” of the grass? Right.

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