The Los Angeles Times issued a correction about their insertion of the words “controversial, ultraconservative” in front of Bill O’Reilly’s name, in violation of an agreement O’Reilly had with LAT columnist Robert Hilburn:

In the Critic’s Notebook by Times pop music critic Robert Hilburn that ran in Section A on July 3, the term “ultraconservative” was added by a copy editor to describe Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly. Hilburn, before interviewing O’Reilly about the social activism of U2’s Bono, had told the commentator he would not label him in a subjective way. The adjective that was inserted did not reflect that agreement or the critic’s views.

We were the first web site to note the story. We were even faster than Fox News’ transcript!

The correction does not address the larger issue, which is why the copy editor felt compelled to add the adjectives. Here was the sentence as printed:

Bono has been so persuasive in his advocacy of debt relief for Africa that he has won the respect even of controversial, ultraconservative Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly.

Surely LAT readers know where Fox News is positioned ideologically. This would have sent the same message:

Bono has been so persuasive in his advocacy of debt relief for Africa that he has won the respect even of Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly.

The LAT seems somewhat unbalanced in its use of “ultra” adjectives. Google says that it can find no instances of the the word “ultraliberal” on the LAT site; a search using the Times‘ own tool finds one — in a letter to the editor.

Google found 56 instances of “ultraconservative” — many linked to Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I’m sure Bill O’Reilly appreciates the association.

(Thanks to LA Observed for picking up our story and sending a bunch of traffic from the LAT our way.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2005 at 9:44 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Los Angeles Times, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.