[internetworkers] dead (vice-)presidents
Rowland Smith
rowland at nc.rr.com
Wed Feb 11 12:27:55 EST 2004
Doozie slips through Net
One of Lowdown's eagle-eyed spies, browsing the Web for Halliburton Co.
news, came upon the following shocking item on MSNBC.com:
"Cheney dead at age 62
"Dick Cheney, the stalwart conservative and unflappable Washington
insider picked by George W. Bush to be his vice president, died DAY TK
in PLACE TK." ("TK" is journalistic shorthand for "to come.")
My source told me: "This obit ... was uploaded May 23, 2003 ... When I
clicked on the headline [and summary], it said 'article not found.'
Still, kind of a dopey thing to have your obit file anywhere near the
live Web site." The obit was apparently written on May 23, my source
said. "That was the day Cheney cast the deciding Senate vote for Bush's
$35 billion tax cut."
An embarrassed MSNBC.com spokeswoman confirmed that the Cheney obit was
accidentally posted on the site a few weeks ago, and said his May 23
Senate vote wasn't a factor.
"It was caught within an hour and taken down," she said. "Obviously,
we're not happy."
An adviser to Vice President Cheney, who wears a state-of-the-art
pacemaker after suffering several heart attacks, declined my invitation
to make light of MSNBC.com's boo-boo:
"You're asking me to say something witty and memorable about a false
obituary? Okay then, I have three words for you: Wouldn't be prudent."
---
Rowland
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