I just checked a rarely-used account of mine, and read for the first time an email from Keith M. Urbahn, an aide to Donald Rumsfeld. He sent an audio file of the speech I mocked Rumsfeld for last month.
I stand by some of my mockery–comparing email and talk radio is silly–but Rumsfeld does not say “pods,” as quoted in Sharon Weinberger’s original post, which I in turn quoted. He clearly says “blogs,” which makes a lot more sense. I should have hunted down the original audio sooner. Weinberger, too, has updated her post with the correction.
Enough time has passed that I figured this merited a new post, in addition to updating the original. This is a blog about words, so I should try to get them right, and correct myself when I don’t. I apologize for the error.
John, I don’t think you get the point of the blogosphere. You’re not supposed to admit your mistakes, you’re supposed to either 1) delete the post without comment, 2) ignore it entirely, or 3) attack those who are correcting you.
It’s hard to pass up the obligatory, it’s a little late for Rumsfeld to be worrying about getting the facts right at this point.
I swore off vitriol: nothing but unicorns and rainbows from me. And dude, I was *scared.* Didn’t want DR to show up at my house and thrash me with his squash racquet.
Just because Rumsfeld couldn’t ever admit an error, doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t–he should hardly be anyone’s model.