Saturday, September 10, 2011

Changing History

According to the American Thinker website, PBS has deleted from their copy of the transcript a historical mistake made by President Obama in his jobs-plan speech this past Thursday night. The president's error was in saying Abraham Lincoln was the founder of the Republican party. I remember hearing that and thinking it sounded unusual, but didn't check the facts. Laziness on my part, and an assumption that "surely the president's speeches are fact-checked."


The president said (from the New York Times transcript):


We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union.  Founder of the Republican Party.  But in the middle of a civil war . . . 


What the president said after PBS deleted the historical error:


We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union.  But in the middle of a Civil War . . . 


A good example of how history (the history of this speech) gets rewritten courtesy of PBS. (Note also PBS's error in capitalizing "Civil War" following the indefinite article "a." NYT 2, PBS 0.)

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