5.31.2005

Out of touch: Six in ten Americans say George W. Bush is out of touch with the American people, according to a CBS poll last week. Perhaps that explains why Bush says Amnesty International's report that likens torture in Guantanamo Bay to Soviet gulags as "absurd." Then there's Cheney:
For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously.
Update: The full context of what Bush said:
"It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of -- and the allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth."
But as Boingboing notes, the
Chicago Tribune (and all the papers it sold the story to) was kind enough to correct Bush's use of the word "disassemble" (i.e. to take apart). So did Radio Free Europe.

How kind of the liberal media.

1 comment:

Paul Schmelzer said...

I emailed Mark Silva, Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune to ask why he changed Bush's quote. His reply:

In an effort to aid readers'
understanding of what he clearly was attempting to say, I spelled dissemble as it should have been stated. In retrospect, I should have let his malaprop stand on its own - with an explanation perhaps. I'll be inclined to do so in the future as well. You may be interested in my follow-up article today. Thanks for reading, and thanks for asking.

Mark Silva
White House Correspondent
Chicago Tribune
Wireless: mdsilva@tribune.com
Office: 202 824 8213
Cellular: 202 345 0656