I owe an apology to MSNBC’s Willie Geist.
When I make a mistake, I will admit it. It’s not always easy or comfortable for anyone to admit when they are wrong (as all of us are from time to time) or when they have offended another person. As a parent of a daughter, I am trying to teach her to understand that none of us is perfect and that being able to admit one’s mistakes, rather than run from them or pretend they didn’t happen, is important no matter how old you are.
So let me explain why I’m apologizing to Mr. Geist.
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about Elizabeth Warren being an “un”-candidate and my thoughts about the possibility that Warren is running for U.S. Senate not so much for the win, but to keep on our radar the important issues of our economy and how so many American families are struggling just to stay above water financially, and what the government’s role should be in fixing that.
In connection with that, I wrote about an interview with Warren that I was listening to on the XM Radio simulcast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. I criticized some of the questions and what I perceived as a tone of sexism (not because the questions were tough, but because of the underlying assumptions in some of the questions that Ms. Warren was possibly in over her head in a Senate race). I wrongly attributed those questions and the tone of those questions to Mr. Geist.
As a frequent viewer of the show, I believed I was correct in identifying the questioner as Mr. Geist. I was wrong. I should have viewed the video of the segment of the show before I wrote my post, rather than relying on my belief that as a viewer of the show that I had correctly identified Mr. Geist’s voice.
I have E-mailed Mr. Geist with my sincere and heartfelt apologies, but I wanted to convey them again here to let you, as my readers, know that I take accuracy very seriously. I pride myself on being accurate in my writing. As a long-time writer and journalist, I have nothing without my responsibility to write fairly and accurately and to double-check my facts. If a make a mistake, I will correct it.
So Mr. Geist, I sincerely apologize to you for my mistake. It was never my intention to wrongly attribute the questions or motivations in the interview or to offend you as a result of my mistake. The fact that it wasn’t purposeful isn’t an excuse, but I hope you will accept my apology. I know there are many writers who will not admit when they’ve made a mistake, but I am not one of them.
For my readers, I hope you know that I take my writing very seriously and would never wrongly attribute statements to someone for any reason.
Fri, September 23, 2011
Making Our Political Voices Heard