If Vice-President Cheney did, as Eugene Volokh claims, just "misspoke" when he claimed that Iraq had nuclear weapons, shouldn't his staff have issued a correction later that same day? Or issued a correction the next day? Or at some point?
Let's be clear; we're not talking about the New York Times misstating something. Professor Volokh is talking about the Vice-President of the United States saying that the leader of another, quite bad, country having atomic weapons in prelude to a possible war. This is very serious stuff. Every word must be measured, and if it can't be (like "in the middle of a long unscripted exchange") then it should be corrected as soon as possible.
Unless, of course, you intend your misstatement to be absorbed and believed.
Comments (1)
There is, of course, another possibility, which is that, as Eugene Volokh also points out, his staff did precisely that.
Posted by David Nieporent | July 18, 2003 9:16 AM
Posted on July 18, 2003 09:16