Narrative

The Narrative Was Right, but the Facts Were Wrong

"It was about race. Nifong's motivations clearly were rooted in his need to win black votes. There were tensions between town and gown, that part was true. The narrative was properly about race, sex and class. . . . We went a beat too fast in assuming that a rape took place. . . . We just got the facts wrong. The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong."

Or as BOTW put it: Our reporting was guided by our prejudices, and even though the story turned out to be false, we stand behind our prejudices.

Priceless! I believe we've occasionally mentioned narrative in relation to worldview before in these parts, and here it is, modern journalism at its finest!

UPDATE: Here's an example of narrative at work in this Nude Orc Gnu Spork Blue Stork New York Times editorial, which could easily be mistaken for an hysterical Democratic Underground blog rant.

Nope. No media bias there. Just MoveOn.

UPDATE: Yet more imploding narrative, from The New Republic. Seems they have something like an AP problem going. Or, given past history, call it a recurring Stephen Glass problem. (Be sure not to miss TNR editor Franklin Foer accusing critics of having an ideological bias at the end of the Kurz/WaPo link.)

UPDATE: More media-pumped narrative, via Patterico. This bunch comes from the Left Angleworm Los Angeles Times.