Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Grace and Sour Grapes



Now we know. Contrary to reports published in Sydney's Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, the flag that was (briefly) wrapped around the face of Saddam Hussein's statue came from the US Senate gift shop. In response KnobBlog makes this graceful admission:

I WAS WRONG. The flag that was draped over the statue of Saddam did not come from the Pentagon. Media Watch last night presented two impressive sources who contradict widespread international reports - and my own repeated and, as it turns out, incorrect claims - that the flag was sourced from the Pentagon on September 11.

But what Media Watch won't admit is that they didn't know they were right when they aired their initial report. It took Media Watch three weeks of research - prompted by this site and various comments at the Media Watch website - to prove their case. Their situation is analogous to someone who assumes OJ Simpson is guilty because of his race, and who is subsequently proved correct by DNA evidence.


On the other hand, Tim was wrong when he criticised the original report, he's been wrong for the past three weeks and now he's man enough to admit that he was wrong all the time - he just didn't know it yet. Sounds logical enough to me.

Sunday, May 04, 2003

Meanwhile ...



I'm feeling lazy today, so I'm going to take a book out of James Russell's leaf and post a brief round-up on what other bloggers have been saying.

While Ken Parish has been on a short hiatus, various commenters have been lowering the tone at Troppo Armadildlo.

John Quiggin has been collecting suggestions on how to restock his library. He also complains the The Bill has jumped the shark. Obviously he never saw The Noble Conflict, the celebrated Taiwanese chop-socky soap opera which jumped the shark in the very first episode and never looked back.

Pedantry has some interesting thoughts on the American education system.

Rob Schaap found some worthwhile ideas in this article.

meika has been traumatised by discovering the US' foremost gutter intellectual.

And in the mainstream media Chris Puplick has resigned from his position as president of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board. I think it's even money that Ozblogistan's favourite conservative harridan will have something to say about this on Wednesday. In fact I'm prepared to bet my blog on it.

If your blog is listed on BlogShares you can take up the bet by posting a comment. Just tell me how many shares of your blog you're willing to put up for a chance to win an equal number of Tug Boat Potemkin shares. The house limit is 100 shares.