Eric Boehlert Owes Jim Treacher a Correction

Patterico ^ | 2/9/2010 | Patterico

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Eric Boehlert owes Jim Treacher a correction.

In a screed — ironically enough, about NRO’s need to correct errors in their pieces — Boehlert wrote:

It’s true that a conservative blogger, who writes under name Jim Treacher, immediately claimed he’d been hit by a Secret Service SUV.

No, Eric Boehlert, that’s actually not true. It’s actually quite false.

Treacher today explains:

A quick clarification for Eric Boehlert and anybody else who’s confused: I did not claim Secret Service hit me. I said I was told Secret Service hit me by people who would know. Namely, the paramedics who took me from 22nd and M to Georgetown University Hospital. They said they didn’t know if I realized it, but I’d been hit by CIA or Secret Service. Probably the latter. So I passed along what I was told, and said I wanted answers if it was true.

A quick review of Treacher’s original piece reveals that he is correct. That piece stated: “One last thing: I’m told by multiple people that the SUV that hit me was Secret Service. If this is true, I want to know why that happened.”

So Boehlert took a true statement and changed it into one that was false — and then denounced the statement as false. Indeed, in an update, Boehlert doubled down — nay, tripled down. First Boehlert even more explicitly repeated his false allegation concerning Treacher’s original report:

UPDATED: And how about the Daily Caller itself, which allowed its blogger to publish the allegation on its site that he’d been hit by the Secret Service, which was not true. The Daily Caller then posted a long, detailed account of the accident, suggesting a government conspiracy to cover up the crime. Yet in that accusatory article, the Daily Caller left out the fact that its employee originally, and eroneously, accused the Secret Service of running him over, and did it on the Daily Caller site. That fact was conveniently flushed down the memory hole.

(The bold emphasis is mine; the italics and misspelling are all Boehlert’s. Two r’s in “erroneously,” Boehlert. You’re welcome. It’s a word you need to learn, as it has special application to your “work.”)

Wrong again, Boehlert. There is no issue of a memory hole here. If you read Treacher’s post, you will continue to see his original, non-“eroneous” quote about being told he had been hit by the Secret Service — along with an update clarifying as follows: “The Daily Caller has been told by federal law enforcement sources that the Secret Service was not involved, and is working to confirm that driver of the vehicle which struck Jim Treacher was a State Department security employee.”

Boehlert then goes on to describe Treacher’s original, accurate claim as one of two “lies” being told about the incident.

Boehlert is one to complain about accuracy. He is the guy who:

• Distorted a quote from blogger See Dubya, taking See Dubya’s quote about one of two possible scenarios and turning it into a positive claim by See Dubya.

• Falsely claimed that Jamil Hussein was “under arrest” — and then refused to correct the error . . . in a column about warbloggers’ failures to correct errors. (See? Today’s irony is not without precedent.)

• Fibbed about claims made by opponents of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — and then got caught with his pants down by Tom Maguire.

To my knowledge, Boehlert has corrected none of these past errors. (Oh, hell, let’s call them “lies”; why should Boehlert receive the benefit of the doubt, when he is not willing to extend that courtesy to others?)

But correct me if I’m wrong. Unlike Boehlert, I care about the truth, and will cheerfully issue a correction when shown I’m wrong.

[higgmeister]

“The Daily Caller has been told by federal law enforcement sources that the Secret Service was not involved, and is working to confirm that driver of the vehicle which struck Jim Treacher was a State Department security employee.”

Why would anyone think it makes a difference that one Executive Branch governmental agent who carries a badge and a gun and drives a big black SUV did not run down a pedestrian when another Executive Branch governmental agent that carries a badge and a gun and drives a big black SUV did run down a pedestrian!?

Let's see now, one works for The State Department and the other works for The Department of Homeland Security but if he wasn't a Secret Service Agent that gets a pass! Eric Boehlert can kiss my dirty paperclip!