Let's take a look at this: Bill O'Reilly is applauding New York Time's TV critic Alessandra Stanley, a woman not known for her ability to fact check, for her comments about Fox News and MSNBC. Even though it's doubtful she even watches television, since she got wrong the fact that it's CNN that calls their anchors "the best political team on television," not MSNBC. (And somewhere out there, there's a built-in counter for how many days it's been since Stanley got the dates of the Iraq War wrong.)

But Stanley is spelled L-E-Y, not, as it's written on the Factor, E-L-Y. So is this thumbs up actually a subtle smirk at the error-riddled NYT? Or just more proof that even those who would call themselves infallible are, in fact, human after all. Or at least their writers are.

Also, accuracy. Error-prone Times television critic Alessandra Stanley, who may or may not watch the programs she reviews, on whether she's doing anything different with regard to what often follows her columns: corrections. "I am trying to avoid them." [NYT]

"A Perky Debut for the Fox Business Network!" proclaims Alessandra Stanley's in her correction-free evaluation of the news gals' first day on the job. Naturally, she's referring to the anchors' so-called "sunny dispositions," although, judging by their clingy, brightly colored news frocks (and pervy news prez, Roger Ailes) we're thinking the characterization works on many levels. [NYT]

Ever fondled a child? Been incorrectly pegged as a size 16? Lied about your alma mater to get your wedding announcement in the Times? If so, there's an excellent chance your life is already as good as over. Either that or Clark Hoyt is just short on material this week.

Let’s face it, I mean, I’m a myth. You know, I’m Beowulf, you know, I’m Grendel. I don’t know who I am. But they’re after me.

–Karl Rove, President Bush’s (former) chief political adviser, complaining—as Alessandra Stanley puts it—that "Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were Captain Ahabs relentlessly pursuing him as the big white whale." [NYT]

According to a research study conducted by Professor Scott R. Meier (and highlighted by Slate's Jack Shafer) only 2% of "flawed articles" are later corrected.

When asked for her opinion on the new study, a somewhat vindicated Alessandra Stanley replied, "Ha! Looks like instead of lambasting me for my litany of errors, you guys should actually be praising me for my honesty and forthrightness".

She then immediately issued a correction.

[Slate]

Everyone makes mistakes. After all, who among us has never once accidentally left the stove on, forgotten their house keys or shoplifted a $4 charm bracelet from Claire's Accessories in the fifth grade?

And who knows more about making mistakes than NYT television critic, Alessandra Stanley, who holds the dubious distinction of issuing corrections as frequently as a half-empty bottle of White Out? Today, however, hers was not so much a factual inaccuracy as a mysterious omission.

CONTINUED »

Did you read Alessandra Stanley's column in today's New York Times? The piece starts out by focusing on NBC's (second place) primetime news anchor, Brian Williams, and describing how his decision to report from Iraq was unfairly labeled as a ratings stunt, and ends up asserting that networks have absolutely no idea what viewers are looking for in an anchorperson nowadays.

According to Stanley, after the triumvirate of Jennings, Rather and Brokaw retired, NBC went for the "polish" of Williams, CBS went for the "personality" of Katie Couric, and ABC only chose the 'always-vacationing' Charlie Gibson as a last resort.

CONTINUED »

• Television news is obsessed with aging. Or, it could just be a projection of Alessandra Stanley’s inner fears. [NYT]

• First a street, now an institute. Peter Jennings can't even rest when in peace. [ABC]

• The FCC cracks down on Nicole Richie's fave four-lettered word, in order to get her to start liking the f word. You know, "food?" [Newsday]

• The only guy at the Chicago Tribune with a blog calls his co-workers a bunch of idiots. Really, what the shit is a bloggie anyway? [ChiTri]

• When it rains it pours. We'll take all the Wenner gossip we can get, even if for some reason it doesn't involve Steve DeLuca. [Gawker]

Given Alessandra Stanley's recent (and historical) ability to deliver egregious factual errors in any body of copy, we were a little concerned when we spotted her byline accompanying an item about something so serious as Bob Woodruff's attack in Iraq. So, the investigative journalists that we are, we decided to go through her piece with a fine-toothed comb. And we mean fine-toothed, folks. This comb has got tiny ass bristles. Like, skinnier than Nicole Richie's calves.

So begins Stanley:

Bob Woodruff was in Baghdad for ABC reporting the good news that the Bush administration complains is ignored by the news media, and he ended up as a glaring illustration of the bad news.
So far, so good, 'Sandra.

Mr. Woodruff, the newly named co-anchor of "World News Tonight," spent Friday chatting with friendly Iraqis on the street and slurped ice cream at a popular Baghdad shop to show how some in Iraq are seeking a semblance of normalcy.
Sure, we've got no way of independently verifying that Woodruff "slurps" his ice cream rather than bites into it with his front teeth, but given Iraq's heat index, we imagine that's how a news anchor might eat his ice cream. So, check.

Yesterday he and an ABC cameraman, Doug Vogt, were badly wounded while traveling in a routine convoy with Iraqi military forces who are being trained to impose that normalcy and allow American troops to go home.

What happened to Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt was one of those chilling television moments that mark a milestone. This conflict has shown all too clearly that soldiers, civilians, aid workers and journalists are all targets.
Normally facts reported elsewhere and repeated verbatim would be an opportunity for Stanely to slip up — but she's wow-ing us here. Wow-ow-ow-ing.

Soldiers, American and Iraqi, are wounded and killed by roadside bombs and ambushes every day in tragedies so common they float to the back pages. But until now, at least, network anchors always seemed to sail through hot spots with an inalienable aura of invulnerability, like senators or movie stars.

Mr. Woodruff's plight underscored at a whole new level that Americans there feel like sitting ducks, picked off by a faceless enemy.
We're a little wary here. "Every day?" Surely there was a 24 hour period when neither an American or Iraqi soldier was injured or killed. Well .. Hah! Who are we kidding? The way George Bush is running things over there, we're surprised when 60 minutes go by without incident. Way to go, Ales-es-es-es-es-sandra. Another gold star.

The attack, which led all the network evening newscasts, was obviously a blow for ABC, which only last month appointed Mr. Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas as a team to replace the late Peter Jennings, packaging the duo as pioneers of a new, more light-footed style of evening news show. Last night, Ms. Vargas did the anchor duties alone in a dark pinstriped jacket, gravely interviewing other ABC correspondents about the escalating danger of roadside bombs.
We'll give Stanley the benefit of the doubt here: Yes, we believe she watched Sunday night's broadcast, even if she did file her copy so shortly after it wrapped.

One reason networks, and ABC in particular, have been loath to appoint a single female anchor is that many news executives believe that in an emergency, viewers prefer a comforting fatherly presence. In this case, ABC's chosen authority figure was hurt in a crisis, and the distressing news was delivered by a female anchor chosen more for her on-air grace than her experience or gravitas.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Now that's what we were looking for: a reason for the Times to issue one of its many Alessandra Stanley Brand corrections.

Vargas was hired more for her grace than her "experience or gravitas?"

You know Tuesday's paper is going to carry the following: "An article on Monday that described ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas' hiring misrepresented her qualifications. She was identified as having grace, while she was actually hired because, when sat next to dreamboat Bob Woodruff, viewers want to fuck the news."

Thanks for playing along at home!

A Bomb Detonates, and an Anchorman Tells a Story of the War by Becoming the Story [Alessandra Stanely, NYT]
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage

Earlier this morning we turned your attention to Alessandra Stanley's overbaked (and yet, somehow, still undercooked) assessment of how the MTA strike was the best possible news story for local stations: all the helicopters and breaking into regularly scheduled programming that 9/11 called for, but without that obnoxious side effect of death and destruction. What we did not point out, however, is that neither Alessandra nor her New York Times editors know how to use Google.

And when WABC's local "Eyewitness News" pre-empted "Good Morning America" for a second day of live coverage, the morning anchors Steve Bertelstein and Lori Stokes looked as if they were blissed out on hash brownies.

Actually, the M4M colleague stalker of a WABC morning anchor is named Steve Bartelstein. Tomato, potato, right?

Media Ode to the City That Walks [Alessandra Stanley, NYT]
Earlier: Katie Couric's cackles rain down on our frozen faces

And with much fanfare, reporter gets anchor goodbye story wrong.

Note To Alessandra: Anderson Cooper Didn't Interview Nicole Richie On 360 [TVNewser]
With Little Fanfare, an Anchor Says Goodbye [NYT]
Earlier: Koppel's final sign off

After plenty of bitching over the New York Times' claiming he staged a Hurricane Katrina rescue for the benefit of the cameras — and securing the support of WaPo media critic Howard Kurtz and even NYT public editor Byron Calame — Geraldo Rivera is finally getting his NYT correction.

But it's certainly no apology and sounds much closer to a snide aside. And that's why we love those folks on West 43rd.

The TV Watch column on Sept. 5 discussed broadcast journalists' undisguised outrage at the failings of Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts. It said reporters had helped stranded victims because no police officers or rescue workers were around, and added, "Fox's Geraldo Rivera did his rivals one better: yesterday, he nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety."

The editors understood the "nudge" comment as the television critic's figurative reference to Mr. Rivera's flamboyant intervention. Mr. Rivera complained, but after reviewing a tape of his broadcast, The Times declined to publish a correction.

Numerous readers, however - now including Byron Calame, the newspaper's public editor, who also scrutinized the tape - read the comment as a factual assertion. The Times acknowledges that no nudge was visible on the broadcast.

Hear that? No nudge, even if Alessandra Stanley channeled one.

Oh Alessandra Stanley, how you make us yearn for your fruit fly to our banana (and an "x" in your name so we can say it without lisping). If there's anyone at the New York Times we'd want to cover gay anything, it's you, doll.

So thanks so much for your Logo channel review, where we realize stars aren't the only ones like us, but gays are too! (It probably doesn't hurt that "us" are homos, but you get the idea.)

We so appreciate when the NYT liberals take a stab at normalizing an entire demographic as well as the TV channel that caters to it. Our only caveat? Your turning what could've been a nice fluff piece on gay weddings and international hookup spots into critique on Viacom's social responsibility. Your editor's doing? (Just nod your head.)

It's all a joke, but it happens to coincide with a growing conservative movement to roll back gay rights, most noticeably by halting the legalization of gay marriage. That mission is led by evangelical Christians who view homosexuality as a sin and say they feel oppressed by a society that keeps expanding the terms of tolerance. And theirs is a serious movement; there are all kinds of differences and intolerances around the country, but most are not bolstered by Senate legislation and passages from the Bible.

Geez, Alessandra, you're getting all Brian Graden on us. Stop pushing!