What Dan Said

Dan Froomkin, that is, about the bogus numbers that the Pentagon keeps feeding the media regarding Guantanamo detainees who have returned to the fight:

Denbeaux calls this week's outrageous Pentagon assertions the latest example of what he calls "numbers without names and trends without numbers." He told me he's outraged it's been so widely picked up -- including by the Times.

"I don't see what the point is of a public editor criticizing a story for the New York Times if they're going to republish it a year later," he told me.

Gullible, amnesiac journalists are a dangerous thing. Is our profession really incapable of learning anything from its mistakes?

Yes, journalists are so tied to their sources that they will repeat the same lie, even if it it's known to be a lie, over, and over, and over, and over again.

This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.