From the oops department

The Sun-Sentinel this morning has the following headline-

Wife suspected of poisoning Marine husband to collect $200,000 in insurance

Only one problem. In paragraph number two-

Military investigators now think Sommer's wife poisoned him with arsenic to collect $250,000 in life insurance money and escape her life as a Subway employee burdened by debt, living on a San Diego military base as a mother of four.

$200,000 is not $250,000. The same story repeats the $250,000 figure in the final paragraph.

The Sun-Sentinel headline writer obviously made a mistake. I make them all the time but at least I'm not getting read by about half a million people a day. ;)

There is an even worse oops out there. Confederate Yankee points to a The New York Times article that reported-

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 13 - Less than two days before nationwide elections, the Iraqi border police seized a tanker on Tuesday that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots, an official at the Interior Ministry said.

The tanker was seized in the evening by agents with the American-trained border protection force at the Iraqi town of Badra, after crossing at Munthirya on the Iraqi border, the official said. According to the Iraqi official, the border police found several thousand partly completed ballots inside.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Iranian truck driver told the police under interrogation that at least three other trucks filled with ballots had crossed from Iran at different spots along the border.

Only one problem, the story looks to be false.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The head of Iraq's border guards denied police reports on Wednesday that a tanker truck stuffed with thousands of forged ballot papers had been seized crossing into Iraq from Iran before Thursday's elections.

"This is all a lie," said Lieutenant General Ahmed al-Khafaji, the chief of the U.S.-trained force which has responsibility for all Iraq's borders.

"I heard this yesterday and I checked all the border crossings right away. The borders are all closed anyway," he told Reuters.

Iraq's frontiers are closed for the period of the election.

"I contacted all the border crossing points and there was no report of any such incident," Khafaji said.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabor also denied the reports, which the New York Times ran prominently, quoting a single unnamed Interior Ministry source, and said it was an attempt to discredit the election process.

More shoddy journalism from the Times but its getting to the point you expect it. The paper trashes its credibility(what remains of it) everytime it runs stories like these. Only one source for a story. I haven't even studied journalism but know you don't print a story on only one person's word.

Captain Ed also points out the obvious flaws in the story. That how would an 18 wheeler cross the desert if the road entry points from Iran into Iraq are closed. Two even if it did get across the border, how were these ballots supposed to get into ballot boxes with this election being closely monitored?

Just an another example of the MSM l publishing or broadcasting news it wants to believe without the simplest checking of facts.

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