No, You Don’t Deserve Credit for Doing the Bare Minimum

Allow me to introduce to you the concept of the “self-congratulatory correction.”

You may recall the particulars: A journalist bungles a story and issues a correction. But not just any correction. It is one in which the journalist reminds everyone of his own superiority, often by unfavorable comparison with the target of his reporting.

Few things demonstrate so well the excessive self-regard that some in the news media have for themselves and their industry.

Although the “self-congratulatory correction” was much more of a fad during the first Trump administration, it still happens. Some people in the news business genuinely believe that the mere act of correcting mistakes, one of the most basic requirements in any information-based profession, is proof of their virtue. Many also treat corrections as the perfect moment to highlight their critics’ vices.

MS NOW doofus Ken Dilanian really stepped in it last week when he misreported that FBI Director Kash Patel had just landed in Russia. The problem: Patel was not in Russia. He was in Virginia, speaking at a public event.

Dilanian simply had bad information. It was “too good to check,” as they say.