As noted earlier on this blog, the Lawrence Journal-World has no problem with publishing letters to the editor from liberals who make claims that cannot be substantiated. Now the Topeka Capital-Journal has pulled a Journal-World.
In its April 25 issue, the Capital-Journal published a letter from Warren Allen of Topeka. According to Allen, "And Bush's clone, McCain, said he wants to continue the killing in Iraq for 100 years. Why would a presidential candidate say such a ridiculous thing?"
Allen has repeated the same lie that Barack Obama has repeated time after time, even after being reprimanded by a few in the media, including Zachary Roth with the liberal Columbia Journalism Review.
Here is what McCain actually said:
Questioner: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for fifty years…
McCain: Maybe a hundred. Make it one hundred. We’ve been in South Korea, we’ve been in Japan for sixty years. We’ve been in South Korea for fifty years or so. That’d be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. Then it’s fine with me. I would hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day
The purpose of letters to the editor is to allow readers an opportunity to express their opinions. However, those opinions should be based on facts, not falsehoods that can be exposed with a quick search on the Internet.
