In a Wall Street Journal “Political Diary” item headlined “Liberal Debt Deal Revolt,” editorial board member and Fox News contributor Stephen Moore misquoted a former Obama administration official, Jared Bernstein, writing that Bernstein said the president “got rolled” in the negotiations over the debt limit. The quote, originally appearing in The Washington Post, was actually from a “senior Senate Democratic aide,” not Bernstein.

Here's a screenshot of the original item, in which Moore clearly attributes the “rolled” quote to Bernstein:

Bernstein, a former chief economist and economic advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, took to his blog and demanded a correction. Moore's item has since been fixed and now carries this correction: "An earlier version of this item misattributed the quote from a senior Senate Democratic aide to Jared Bernstein."

Additionally, Bernstein asked readers to “please let the editors at the WSJ know that this is unacceptably sloppy journalism.” Indeed, theJournal has a history of these kinds of “sloppy” mistakes. Media Matters has documented examples of the Journal fabricating or distorting quotes from both counterterrorism czar Josh Brennan and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. All three distortions have the effect of painting the Obama administration in a negative light.

Given that pattern, unfortunately, the Journal seems likely to misquote another Obama administration official in the future. When that happens, or to heed Bernstein's call about questioning the Journal's “unacceptably sloppy journalism,” contact information for the Wall Street Journal and its editorial board, along with suggestions on how to give impactful feedback, can be found in the “Push Back” section on the right-hand side of this page.