"White Men" Pester LA Times

Patterico pummels the LA Times again; very briefly, the paper ran the following dubious assertion on July 16 in the dead-tree edition, and dropped it without comment from the on-line version:

Until July 1, the president and his aides expected that Rehnquist’s would be the seat they would have to fill.

They thought Rehnquist’s illness would force his retirement, and they intended to move quickly to replace the conservative chief justice with a reliably conservative federal appeals court judge. The leading candidates were all white men.

But when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement, the White House was forced to switch gears.

Emphasis added.  But here is a plot-thickener - apparently, the LA Times relied upon, but could not quite grasp the nuance of, their own earlier reporting.  Not yet airbrushed is their on-line story from July 2, following up on O'Connor's retirement:

The White House counsel's office, charged with finding candidates for an expected vacancy, had to switch gears Friday.

The list of leading contenders to succeed Rehnquist contained mostly white men with conservative judicial records. Judges J. Michael Luttig and J. Harvie Wilkinson III from Virginia and John G. Roberts Jr. from Washington topped the list, officials said.

But the departure of the court's first woman rejiggers the political calculation, several lawyers said. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and Judge Edith Brown Clement, a Bush appointee to the U.S. appeals court in New Orleans, were now seen as serious contenders.

Emphasis added again.  Of course, with the qualifier "mostly" in there, we respond with "no kidding."  Don't overlook the useless, mushy qualifiers - they have a role to play in first-class reporting, too.  Well, sometimes.

Comments

[Martin]

-"Don't overlook the useless, mushy qualifiers -they have a role to play in first-class reporting, too. Well, sometimes."-

So true. They have a role to play in first class White House Press Spokesmanship as well, of course.

Unfortunate McClellan didn't use some qualifiers instead of flat out saying Rove and Libby were't involved at all in leaking Plame's CIA status.

And qualifiers are necessary in first class lawyering too, no? Like in "My client did not knowingly leak classified information."

Come on, buck up. Your last post seems a little dispirited. You know Cooper is lying. It's true your party needs you to help confuse the issues now more than ever, but catching out the LA Times is a little too far afield.

[Jimmy's Attack Rabbit]

***Don't Feed the Trolls***

Thanks for high-lighting the LAT using unhelpful terminolgy. Economics will determine whether this apparent bias adds value to the Times's bottom line.

[BumperStickerist]

More worrisome than the bias is the grammar involved in that sentence.

The list of leading contenders to succeed Rehnquist contained mostly white men with conservative judicial records.

Was this some large bag-shaped list? One large enough to contain these white men and their judicial records?

I think the list contained 'the names' of leading contenders.

William Safire must be spinning in his grave over issues like this, and not just because the Language Maven is not dead.

[kim]

What no liberal women of color?

Shock.....ing.
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[richard mcenroe]

Kim — You rightwing reactionary you. That should be gay unmarried womyn of color and caregivers to persons of youth.

[ELC]

How often did LAT point out last year that the Democrats' presidential ticket comprised only white men? And both of them filthy rich laywers in the U.S. Senate, too. Talk about diversity............