Media outlets respond to Morris retraction

Written by Simon Maloy

Published

As Media Matters for America documented, several media outlets cited or republished Fox News analyst Dick Morris' January 17 column for The Hill, despite the column's central claim -- that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) voted against a Senate ethics bill banning legislators from hiring family members to their campaign committees or political action committees -- being false. Some ran the column even after Morris acknowledged he was wrong and retracted it that day. Many of the outlets have noted Morris' retraction or have pulled Morris' column from their websites and replaced it with Morris' retraction. But others have simply pulled the column without any editorial notation.

  • The Hill, which originally published Morris' column, pulled the column from its website. Originally, The Hill replaced the column with Morris' retraction. Now, the link redirects visitors to Morris' January 10 column.
  • The Washington Times, which quoted Morris on January 18 -- the day after Morris issued his retraction -- noted Morris' apology on January 19 but has not updated the online version of its January 18 column to reflect the correction.
  • The January 19 edition of U.S. News & World Report's online “Political Bulletin” noted Morris' retraction, but the January 17 “Political Bulletin,” which quoted Morris' column, has not been updated to reflect the correction.
  • The Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon, pulled the column from its website. Media Matters could find no indication that the Statesman Journal acknowledged Morris' retraction.
  • NewsMax.com pulled the column and replaced it with Morris' retraction.
  • Human Events Online pulled the column with no editorial notation or acknowledgement of Morris' retraction.
  • Right-wing pundit David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com pulled the column without editorial notation. The webpage now reads: “Please check back soon for updated data.”
  • Family Security Matters pulled the column without editorial notation.

None of these articles currently appears in the Nexis database, although other portions of the January 18 Washington Times column, which do not mention Obama, appear in Nexis without a notation that the article has been altered. A Nexis search also revealed that Morris' column was published in the January 17 Mesa, Arizona, East Valley Tribune and was quoted in the January 17 edition of The Frontrunner, a daily summary of political and policy news. Neither Nexis document, however, noted Morris' retraction.