Friday, September 30, 2005
Dear Sir:
While reading Mr. Kirkpatrick's article on Bill Bennet's abortion comments, I was struck by the apparent laziness of the writer to verify whether Dr. Leavit had, in fact, participated in a debate about the value of abortion to reduced crime rates.
This seems to be an easily verifiable fact. Since it was not, as implied by the author's statement:"That debate, involving Steven D. Levitt, an author of the best-seller "Freakonomics," apparently appeared in Slate six years ago." questions are raised as to why.
With the current furor over the reliability of the Times reporting, I would think there would be extra attention to easily verifiable statements such as whether or not Dr. Leavitt did participate in a discussion about legalized abortion and crime rates.
The author's use of "apparent" seems weasel-esque.
Thank you for your time.
While reading Mr. Kirkpatrick's article on Bill Bennet's abortion comments, I was struck by the apparent laziness of the writer to verify whether Dr. Leavit had, in fact, participated in a debate about the value of abortion to reduced crime rates.
This seems to be an easily verifiable fact. Since it was not, as implied by the author's statement:"That debate, involving Steven D. Levitt, an author of the best-seller "Freakonomics," apparently appeared in Slate six years ago." questions are raised as to why.
With the current furor over the reliability of the Times reporting, I would think there would be extra attention to easily verifiable statements such as whether or not Dr. Leavitt did participate in a discussion about legalized abortion and crime rates.
The author's use of "apparent" seems weasel-esque.
Thank you for your time.
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