Stealth news

Ever notice how the correction to a story that made big headlines never seems to get such big headlines itself? Some news organizations have made token attempts to correct that, requiring that if an error appeared in a front-page story, the correction should be on page one as well -- but that only helps a little because the headline is still very small. No newspaper is going to publish a banner headline announcing "We were wrong!" when a single paragraph with a 14-point headline will suffice.

There's another trick to ensure the correction will get even less notice, and every publicist knows how it works. Release the correction, or any news you want to downplay, on the weekend, especially between Friday evening and Saturday night. Don't wait too long, though -- the new week starts on Sunday afternoon for Monday publications, and they'll be looking for fresh material.

This weekend the Bush administration demonstrated its mastery of those two strategies, releasing Secretary of State Colin Powell's correction to his dramatic, prop-enhanced presentation on Iraq's alleged weapons to the United Nations last February -- Oops! That incontrovertible evidence wasn't "solid" after all -- on Saturday morning during the cartoons.   ¶ 5:49 PM |