Retracto Round-Up: These Sites Ought to Correct the Record

Whenever one respectable media outlet publishes lies, misinformation, and distortions, an inevitable consequence is that other sites pick up the bogus story, repeat the false or unproven facts, and attribute them to the original source. The original source is the tentpole, and if it’s broken, the entire edifice crumbles. Or does it?

Do the writers and publications who merely quoted from the original article have plausible deniability and are thus free from guilt when the truth is fleshed out? Are they are off the hook entirely? Just because these sources can shift blame, does it mean they aren’t responsible for what is published on their pages and site? If the information they publish is later proven to have no factual basis, retractions are still necessary.

All of the sites listed below point to Max Blumenthal’s Salon.com piece as a primary source. It would be excessive to hash out the individual errors in each because all have been thoroughly documented here in our retraction request to Salon:

Gawker’s Alex Pareene writes a column “James O’Keefe Pals Around with White Supremacists.”

In the Newark Star-Ledger: “Fake ACORN Pimp Tied To White Supremacists,” by author John D. Atlas.

John Johnson of Newser wrote a piece “James O’Keefe Has History of ‘Racial Resentment.’”

Regardless of where the story originated or with whom, the responsible thing to do is correct the misinformation and clarify the record.

We kindly ask these publications to do just that.