A front-page article in today's New York Times reports on President Bush's decision-making process on the stem cell issue. "This included a talk in the East Room in July when Mr. Bush was running the Race for the Cure with Dr. Richard Klausner, the director of the National Cancer Institute," the Times reports. This is mistaken on at least two counts. For one thing, the Race for the Cure event in the White House East Room took place Friday, June 1 -- not, as the Times claims, "in July." For another thing, Mr. Bush wasn't "running" the race. He wasn't even running in the race. As a Washington Post report on the event put it, "President Bush told the women he was with them in spirit, but not in the race. 'I wish I was running,' he told the crowd." This is getting to be typical of the Times accuracy level -- The president says in June "I wish I was running"; the Times reports that he "was running" and places the event in July.
Need Some Consulting: An article in the metro section of today's New York Times reports on the activities of Bill Clinton. "Top executives at companies like McKenzie Consulting, Citibank, PepsiCo and United Airlines are Indian-Americans, and they are working closely with Mr. Clinton to raise money," the Times reports. The consulting company that the Times is almost certainly referring to is McKinsey & Company -- not "McKenzie Consulting."
The same article reports, "On another front, Mr. Clinton has developed a plan with City Year, a corporate-financed national service program for young people, to create the Clinton Democracy Fellows." It's misleading to call City Year "corporate-financed." The group's most recent annual report shows that of its $25 million in operating revenues, $10.1 million came from government grants, the largest of which was an $8.5 million federal grant from the Corporation for National Service, which administers the AmeriCorps program. By comparison, $7.4 million of the group's revenues came from corporate contributions.
Child or a Choice: A dispatch from Jerusalem on the front page of today's New York Times reports on a terrorist bombing that killed, among others, Judith Greenbaum. "Now, she was being buried here with the unborn child she carried," the Times reports. Funny how the Times refers to a fetus as an "unborn child" in its coverage of terrorist bombings, but not in its coverage of the policy battles over abortion.