Correcting Our Newspapers

The New York Times’s Caucus blog reported tonight:

Sixty-one senators have now expressed support for repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, appearing to clear the way for passage if Democrats can bring the bill to a vote before the holidays.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is not “the military’s policy.” It is a federal law, 10 U.S.C. Sec. 654. DADT was imposed on the military by Congress. This mistake is made by reporters frequently, but that does not excuse it.
Here is another one, from the Wall Street Journal, via Mark Krikorian at The Corner. In an editorial on Tuesday, the Journal lamented persecution of Christians by Muslims and, in politically correct fashion, suggested that such persecution is a departure from Islam’s tolerant history. This claim is absurd, but Krikorian pointed out this factual howler:

Some of these Christian minorities have coexisted with Islam in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East since the time of Jesus.

Islam, of course, did not exist until the seventh century.
As always, it is a mystery how such basic factual errors get past the presumed battery of editors that review articles and editorials in our leading newspapers.

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