A Modest Victory

 

A week ago the San Antonio Express-News reprinted an article from the Houston Chronicle about a controversial challenge coin circulating among Border Patrol officers.  The article repeated the long-since debunked accusation that the mounted officers depicted on the coins were whipping immigrants at the border, and in fact stated it more than once. I sent an email to the editor of the paper and he replied that he’d look into it. My message:

The EN today ran a Houston Chronicle story from 5 days ago that contained a blatant falsehood. Specifically, it said: “Images of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback using whips to expel a group of Haitian migrants from a river encampment in Del Rio shocked the nation last year, becoming instant and indelible symbols of the crisis unfolding at the border.”

And later: “As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the coins depict a Border Patrol agent with a whip tugging the shirt of a Haitian immigrant.”

And: “The images of patrol agents whipping migrants captured national attention.”

The whip accusation has been roundly debunked and any responsible journalist should know that. There is no reason to repeat a blatant lie other than to support a political position on border enforcement.  If you had any integrity you would print a retraction.

He sent me a polite email that he would look into it.  Yesterday he emailed me that he had forwarded my email to the Chronicle editor and after a discussion with him they changed the articles on both newspaper websites.

New version: Corrected article

To say that I was surprised is an understatement. Maybe if we keep after these guys with specifics they will be forced to actually show some integrity. I usually just shrug this stuff off but that Chronicle reporter has to know now that she will get called out for that sort of stuff. I’m usually too tired to fight this crap but I guess we need to never stop pushing back.

I’d sure like one of those coins.

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There are 9 comments.

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  1. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Is it incompetence or lack of integrity by the reporters who submit the articles containing falsehoods? Same question for the editors. I’m not familiar with the process is why I ask such questions.

    • #1
  2. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    Is it incompetence or lack of integrity by the reporters who submit the articles containing falsehoods? Same question for the editors. I’m not familiar with the process is why I ask such questions.

    The article was written two weeks ago, and a quick look shows that by September 2021 the Washington Post had already quit repeating the whipping accusation.  I believe (but can’t prove) that the reporter intentionally repeated the lie.  The editors were just lazy.

    • #2
  3. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    Is it incompetence or  and lack of integrity by the reporters who submit the articles containing falsehoods? Same question for the editors. I’m not familiar with the process is why I ask such questions.

    FIFY

    • #3
  4. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Well done, Tex! Maybe you’ll be my role model for going after the Orlando Sentinel. Of course, I’d have no time to do anything else . . . 

    • #4
  5. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Does it really matter when the false story is what many people saw who will never see the correction?

    • #5
  6. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Does it really matter when the false story is what many people saw who will never see the correction?

    Hence a modest victory.

    Then again, the editor of a daily responded directly to a reader complaint.  He even reached out to the original source (a bigger daily) and fixed the mistake.  They all could have easily ignored the whole thing, and I’d have had no other recourse.  Therefore, I still find it surprising and a more positive sign than I would have ever expected.  And it means we should never stop pointing this stuff out.

    • #6
  7. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge
    Gazpacho Grande'
    @ChrisCampion

    Tex929rr (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Does it really matter when the false story is what many people saw who will never see the correction?

    Hence a modest victory.

    Then again, the editor of a daily responded directly to a reader complaint. He even reached out to the original source (a bigger daily) and fixed the mistake. They all could have easily ignored the whole thing, and I’d have had no other recourse. Therefore, I still find it surprising and a more positive sign than I would have ever expected. And it means we should never stop pointing this stuff out.

    Yes, it matters.  What’s actually great news is that they fixed it.  There are approximately a zillion cases where no retraction was ever made.

    The action itself means they’ll think twice before they do it again.  The fact that editors let it through, which was probably due to lazy, then made the correction – I’d like to assume it’ll be a miss they remember.

    • #7
  8. mildlyo Member
    mildlyo
    @mildlyo

    Well done!

    • #8
  9. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    FWIW the editor emailed me today – aside from the on line correction they posted the correction today:

    • #9
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