Pamela Kirkland, a producer, reporter and blogcaster for Sirius XM’s POTUS channel, caught WaPo confusing Rand with Ron, Ron with Rand, Paul with Paul, potato with potahto:

I came across not one, but TWO errors. Two blog links talking about GOP Kentucky Senate nominee Rand Paul’s comments on civil rights had his father’s name, Ron Paul, in the title instead.

Two errors? They did that twice? Once is a mistake. Twice is… Freudian? Wishful thinking? Careless? A prank?

Nah. Bad editing.

H/t: Mediabistro

Via Gawker, they also have what WaPo meant to put up.

By GottaLaff

You must read this op-ed by Robert Parry from OpEdNews.com. It gets into a lot of what I’ve been ranting about lately (media propaganda, Sarah Palin’s speech, the death of accurate reporting), only with a twist: Psy-ops.

The trick, [CIA psy-war specialist Edward Lansdale] said, was to plant propaganda in a publication that was perceived to be open and honest because the readers’ defenses would be down and thus they would be more susceptible to the message. In other words, they first had to be fooled about who controlled the outlet and what its biases were.

Several things came to mind as I read this: How do you unfool an entire country? Why can’t we control the message?

And how do you educate low-information voters?

Pleaseohplease go read the whole thing:

A key strategy of the Right has been to convince as many Americans as possible that the U.S. news media has a “liberal bias,” a canard that has stuck even though newspapers have been traditionally pro-Republican and most media outlets are owned by giant corporations reflecting the interests of wealthy individuals. [...]

Alexander’s article in the Post is, in essence, a fancily written version of the Right’s “populist” anti-intellectualism. Anyone who insists on checking out facts and applying reason must be an “elitist.”

That this “condescending” attack line against the Left is being trumpeted by the supposedly “liberal” Washington Post makes it all the more powerful to many Americans.

Now, with the emergence of Sarah Palin as the latest heir to Ronald Reagan’s legacy and as a potential next President of the United States it is clear that empiricism will be snowed under again by a blizzard of half-truths, emotional appeals, historical myths and nasty zingers.

Anyone who dares speak up for facts and reason will be portrayed as a pointy-headed intellectual out of touch with “real Americans.” [...]

The American Right again has taken on the “populist” mantle of the plucky underdog facing down the “elitist” Obama and his arrogant entourage of House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, defenders of Big Government, not to mention the “liberal” news media.

In this narrative, Palin, the Fox News personalities and poor Rush Limbaugh are the real victims who must face the cruelty and condescension of an all-powerful, arrogant Left.

Go read. Now.

H/t: Gr8RDH

By GottaLaff

Here are the most prominent headlines for the L.A. Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. All are online:

L.A. Times:

Weight-loss surgery for the obese may soon be widely used

New York Times:

U.S. Sees an Opportunity to Press Iran on Nuclear Fuel

WaPo:

Foes of reform look to courts to halt legislation

Interesting priorities… or what they think will attract readers.

And yes, it’s such a slow a news day that I had to dig up dueling headlines.

Wow. Via Greg-

Anne Applebaum, editorial writer and columnist for The Washington Post, is under police protection after her Jeep’s engine exploded in mysterious circumstances.

Applebaum, wife of Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and author of “Gulag,” a Pulitzer prize-winning history of the Soviet Gulag, was driving in a Warsaw suburb on Saturday when she heard strange noises from under her hood and got out to investigate. Shortly afterward, the engine blew up, The Times of London reported. Applebaum was unhurt in the explosion. Polish police are considering it a technical problem, but she has been assigned bodyguards while the car’s remains are examined further.

(snip)

She and her husband are vocal critics of the Kremlin