Followup on Princetonian – and more thoughts from Bill Peace and Gary Presley

Update on the article that appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Princetonian, which contained inaccurate and defamatory remarks about NDY.

The online article has been revised. The article also carries an Editor’s note at the end of the article, which we’re told was published in today’s print edition of the Princetonian:

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article inaccurately referred to protests organized by Not Dead Yet and held at Nassau Hall in September 1999 as violent.

Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, also told The Daily Princetonian on Monday afternoon that that the group’s members are trained in nonviolence, and that the organization is not aware of any evidence that any of the death threats came from its members.

There was also a reworking of the text about death threats so that readers would be less inclined to assume that NDY was the source of those threats, a concern with the original version.

In terms of setting the record straight, it’s my turn. Originally, I laid the blame for the gross mischaracterization of the NDY protest at reporter Jason Jung’s doorstep. According to the editor’s note and the email received from the Editor-in-Chief, he had no role in that.

Mr. Jung got his facts straight and his editor screwed it up. I apologize for jumping to conclusions. Since it’s not the first time I’ve seen an editor to damage to a reporter’s factual account, I should have considered that possibility.

When I posted this on Facebook, a couple of people who participated in the protest were really floored. One person remembered it as being to wet and cold that day to move, since the protest they engaged in wasn’t a violent one.

Bill Peace has written a long post titled “Ten Years of Peter Singer.”

Gary Presley also shares some of his own thoughts in “Congratulating Peter Singer.”

Same recommendation as always. Go read what they have to say. –Stephen Drake