By Quentin Langley
Gail Collins, columnist for the New York Times, has decided it is time to take down Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. She is going to have to do better than her first attempt.
In it she accuses the governor of being responsible for layoffs of teachers in Milwaukee in 2010. Walker took office in 2011. Democrat, Jim Doyle, was governor in 2010, though the New York Times is keen to stress it wasn't his fault, but due to a fiscal shortfall specific to Milwaukee, where Walker was the county executive at the time.
This is a fascinating error because it goes to the heart of media bias – in opinion writing, I should stress, not news, at least not in this instance. Collins dislikes Walker, his party, and his policies. She naturally assumes that if anything she considers bad has happened it must be Walker's fault. Blaming Walker is a line that is too good to check. Though it really would not have been hard to check Wikipedia just to find out if he was in office at the time.
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