Piling On William Keller

William Keller who until recently was executive editor of The New York Times asserts that Venezuela is a neighbor of Peru. A screenshot and a geography lesson are after the jump.

I am following Glenn Greenwald, via Brad DeLong and was scooped on breaking geography news by Tim Dickonson and DeLong commenter GvaGuy

The explanation is that this howler is the result of a hasty correction of another howler. As Keller explains

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 17, 2011

An earlier version of my column incorrectly referred to Brazil as one of the countries where leaders “have been flamboyantly consolidating their own power.” I meant Venezuela.

The new problem is that while Brazil’s leader retired after two terms with an 80% approval rating, Brazil does, in fact, border Peru. Keller’s line is that he mixed up Venezuela and Brazil, because, after all what’s the difference and one can’t expect the guy in charge of the New York Times to learn all the little details.

Shockingly, it was alleged by John McQuaid that Keller quietly corrected his first howler and only later reported that he had made a correction. There is no screen shot proving that the New York Times posted a corrected column without admitting that it had been corrected (we really really need a blogger ethics panel).

Links usually are enough when one links to a reputable source. However, if McQuaid’s (uncontested) accusation is accurate, the New York Times can not be considered a reputable source. I will have to save web pages from The New York Times and other dishonest rags if and when I link.

Second Keller howler

What I learned about geography from the New York Times