Here's Your Big Patrice Cuddy Correction

At the bottom of other corrections including dropping the byline on an article about sous vide cooking, we have this, back on Thursday:

A Sept. 23 Metro article about people coming to Washington for the Sept. 24 demonstration against the war in Iraq described Patrice Cuddy, 56, of Olathe, Kan., as a novice protester. Cuddy had participated in three other large rallies against the war, two in Washington and one in New York.

Is that all there is? I don't think so, starting with Chris Hall's work at his Spacecraft blog, where he found an entry in which a Patrice Cuddy of Kansas City, Mo., identifies herself as the following:

"Life long Labor Democrat, arms-control, peace, environmental activist since the mid 1970s - Currently working with 501C3s and the Kansas City Greens who were brought together against the War on Iraq."

Perhaps at the Post you can be an activist for thirty years without necessarily ending your status as a novice protester--according to its correction, it's only the three other antiwar rallies that muddied her alleged inexperience as a protester.

But hey, the Post doesn't really view this as a mistake.Get a load of this: As of 6:29 pm, Sunday Oct. 9, a little internal note has (mistakenly I'm sure) made it through to the online correction attached to the story. Boldface added by me:

A Sept. 23 Metro article about people coming to Washington for the Sept. 24 demonstration against the war in Iraq described ^ (don't want to say "incorrectly" in this case) Patrice Cuddy, 56, of Olathe, Kan., as a novice protester. Cuddy had participated in three other large rallies against the war, two in Washington and one in New York.

Picture endless conversations between reporter Petula Dvorak and Post editors about whether it is truly "incorrect" to say that Cuddy is a novice after attending "only" three other rallies.

And why don't online corrections link back to the story being fixed?

And how was the mistake made? Did ANSWER present her as Jane Q. Mom? Did Cuddy herself? It matters.

Update: Greetings, Instanistas. You might also be interested in this item posted on Wednesday, when I asked a Post Metro editor in a live chat about coverage of the antiwar protests.

Comments

[The Monster]

At the risk of stating the obvious, at least to those of us who live in the KC metro area, Olathe, KS is included therein. It's not unusual for people from KCMO to move out to Olathe after they've built enough equity to afford the price of a home there.

[RFTR]

You say it matters, but does it really? Either way, the Post took it at face-value, never considering the possibility that maybe these anti-war protests don't have the broad, grassroots support that ANSWER wants you to think.

And that's damning.

[Christopher Fotos]

Thanks for the local info, Monster.

RFTR, there are lots of ways to make mistakes, and I've made a few myself. The reporter could have assumed Cuddy was a "novice" protester. ANSWER could have pitched Cuddy to her (I don't know that they did, I'm just speculating) that way without Cuddy's knowledge. Et cetera. There's a difference between carelessness and subterfuge.

By the way, re-reading both versions of the correction, I see they say that Cuddy attended three previous large rallies against the war, a careful phrase that leaves the door open to her having attended even more smaller rallies. This is some experienced novice!

[Matt]

Thanks for catching this, Chris. Makes my efforts seem . . . well, hell, it's better than nothing. A little.

By the way, it seems almost certain that Cuddy has participated in smaller anti-war protests, or at least has attempted to. It appears that she'll try to turn just about anything into an anti-war rally. As I noted in my original post on her back on September 23:

"She once tried to march in a local St. Patrick's Day parade as an 'Elf for Peace,' carrying 'PEACE IS GREEN signs decorated with shamrocks.'"

[Christopher Fotos]

Hey Matt! You did super work, and as I noted at the time you did yourself credit by pointing to Chris Hall when he missed the Instalanche.

And yes, re the smaller demos, the more I think of it the more it has to be the case that they carefully worded this cx to say she attended three previous large demos.

Novices are just more experienced than they used to be.

[Tim]

It looks like the only novices here are the reporter and the editor.

[John Blake]

In any participation, the first rule is "know who you're dealing with." Gandhi is one thing, Hitler or Stalin is another.

Someone has misrepresented this person's longstanding history of arm-waving at any anti-US demonstration available. I suspect all three parties: The organizers, seeking to appear as appealing to the hitherto-naive middle; the post-partum activist herself, fudging the fact that she WILL march once a month, regardless, and has for many years; and the "reporter" (a log-on propagandist), whom we do not credit with a "mistake" or even good intentions: She knew perfectly well what this "spontaneous upwelling of dissent" signified, who pulled its strings, for whose partisan purposes the whole thing was obviously orchestrated.

Why act surprised at a dishonest, weasely "correction" which is no more than a self-justification for repeating the exercise every time an opportunity recurs?
Don't bother to even scan this stuff originally, because such theatricals are phony on their face. Maybe aging hippies still take these coprophagous mouthings seriously, but no-one with any sense would waste his time.

[rjschwarz]

Perhaps if you don't get paid to protest you can't be considered above amateur status.

Perhaps knowing that you've been agitating for 30 years without results is too grim a thought for the protestors to get their minds around.

[chris hall]

Thanks again for the link(s). Amazing how the WaPo folks and others just don't seem to understand what regular people find obvious.

I need to find a truly outrageious story and get an instalanche of my very own :^}

Nah, I'm too busy figuring out where to go for my next motorcycle ride.

[Christopher Fotos]

Chris, your priorities sound pretty good to me.

And kudos for your sleuthing.

[Kevin]

I dropped WaPo a note about this (using your links). Think they'll fix it?

[Christopher Fotos]

Good question. As of Tuesday morning, that note inside the correction is still there. Posibilities include 1. They don't know (it's a big paper) 2. They do know, and know that it's been flagged by me, and therefore don't want to call more attention to it by changing it.