Maybe Lexis or Westlaw Could Give the NYT a Discount? Because It Doesn’t Seem Likely NYT Writers Will Actually Log On Too Often…

In a 1/18/06 post entitled “Bashing Feminists” at Left2Right, Michigan Philosophy Professor Elizabeth Anderson wrote:

“Ana Marie Cox, self-professed feminist and formerly of Wonkette fame, reviewing “Women Who Make the World Worse” by Kate O’Beirne in the New York Times Book Review, Jan. 15, 2006 … commits a howler in conceding a point to O’Beirne:

“She mocks MacKinnon’s (decades-old) contention that ‘all heterosexual intercourse is rape.'”

“Please, sisters, at least do a little fact checking when you come across preposterous smears like this? University of Michigan Law School Professor Catharine MacKinnon never said that.

“Here’s a measure of how much a group is despised: how much malicious absurdity can one ascribe to its members and still be taken as a credible source on what they say and do? With respect to feminists, the answer is quite a lot. Christina Hoff Sommers, former philosopher and professional feminist basher, has been widely and credulously cited for her critique of the American Association of University Women’s report, How Schools Shortchange Girls, although my fact-checking finds her critique riddled with errors, inconsistencies, and misleading claims. Many academic critics of feminist philosophers are just as bad, often to the point of ascribing claims to feminists that are exactly the opposite of what they say. Feminists, it seems, are not entitled to a minimally charitable or even literate reading of what they say. Perhaps this is to be expected, if not excused, of those who wear their hatred of feminists on their sleeves. But for feminists themselves to fall for such bashing? Please.”

Observe that Anderson posted her words on flippin’ JANUARY 18!!! Finally, finally, finally, almost a month after the Cox review ran, the NYT got around to acknowledging on February 12 in an Editor’s Note that:

“A review on Jan. 15 about “Women Who Make the World Worse: And How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Families, Military, Schools, and Sports,” by Kate O’Beirne, repeated a misattribution, contained in the book, of the quotation “All heterosexual intercourse is rape.” The quotation, from “Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women’s Studies,” by Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge, is part of those authors’ characterization of the views of the late Andrea Dworkin, the feminist writer, and Catharine MacKinnon, the law professor and legal theorist; it is not from MacKinnon’s own writings.

“The review, however, endorsed the quotation as representative of MacKinnon’s expressed opinions, calling it “MacKinnon’s (decades-old) contention.” In fact, while this and similar statements equating heterosexual intercourse and rape have often been atttributed to MacKinnon, she has long and vigorously denied having made such assertions or that they represent her beliefs.

“MacKinnon’s past efforts to correct the record on this matter include a letter, written with Dworkin, published in the Book Review on May 7, 1995. The issue has also been the subject of an article in The Chicago Tribune (“Fighting a Lie That Just Won’t Die,” by Cindy Richards, May 30, 1999) and of an entry on Snopes.com, a Web site that specializes in investigating Internet rumors (www.snopes.com/quotes/mackinno.htm). [Emphasis added].

“MacKinnon traces the origin of her identification with such statements to attempts by ideological opponents to discredit her.”

I’d have to suggest to MacKinnon that the sheer incompetence of the NYT editorial staff isn’t doing her any favors either. Sheesh.

–Ann Bartow

UPDATE: Geekery Today has a great post on this topic, an excerpt of which is below:

“….Readers may remember that back in January, Salon also ran an interview with O’Beirne by Rebecca Traister back in January, where Traister casually reported the fabricated”quote”not only as fact, but in fact as old news. As it happens, two different people wrote them back within a day of when the story was published : Anonymous 2006-01-16 and Mike Connell 2006-01-17. I posted about it here at GT 2006-01-31: Memo to Rebecca Traister a couple of weeks later. As of 6:39pm on February 19, 2006, they have not even so much as published a correction. I just sent them a third letter about the topic; we’ll see whether this produces any effect or not.

“Why does this continue to happen? I’m not worried so much about Rebecca Traister or Ana Marie Cox : the lie is widespread, the challenges to it are evidently not widely known (in spite of being repeatedly made in public forums), and their primary job was to discuss O’Beirne’s book, not to fact-check every claim and citation made in it. Or even about O’Beirne herself : like most professional antifeminists, she makes her living on dishonest hatchet pieces, and while that needs to be exposed, it’s not much of a surprise. What I do want to know, though, is why professional publications that claim a reputation for accuracy and honesty so easily allow blatant, known falsehoods like these into print….”