Dewey Defeats Truman

Anybody else read the Bhutto interview in Sunday's Parade Magazine?

That was the oddest thing.

Bhutto is assassinated on December 27. Parade runs with an interview of her on January 6th asking "Is Benazir Bhutto America's best hope against Al-Qaeda?"

Obviously, the interview was from awhile ago (November) and Parade got caught with its publishing pants down.

What's particularly odd was the fact that there was no disclaimer on the article. It appeared as if Bhutto was still alive, with no editor's note or introduction. Admittedly, there was a notice somewhere in the paper it came in, but the magazine itself had no mention that Bhutto had been dead for over a week.

Why no correction/revision? Parade's Publisher, Randy Siegal explains:

It would have cost several million dollars to do, but that's not the reason, the rationale for doing it. We believe that what Benazir Bhutto had to say should be heard and this story deserved to be told.
(via NPR)

Two observations:

First, When people say that something isn't about money – it's about money.

Second, had they posted a correction, her story would still have gotten out; it would simply have taken longer to do so.

It's not that I feel the publishing of the article was offensive or anything – it's more of a window into the publisher's lead time. This was an interview made in November, going to press in late December that was not stopped given ten days notice.

The news cycle is hardly up to the second, but it's interesting to see how far off the mark a publisher can be, given their distribution model.