Yesterday I attended the symposium hosted by the non-profit media organization, Montana Watchdog. Billed as a crash course on citizen journalism, one of the major themes of the day was that bloggers must take great pains to check their facts in order to increase their credibility.
Pot meet kettle:
I’m quite sure that the table decorations were done by very sincere volunteers on behalf of an organization that is dedicated to conservative principles based on the Constitution. It just strains their credibility when they don’t know the difference between the ARTICLES of the Constitution and the AMENDMENTS to it.
It seems that is a fairly common and foolish mistake.
Although I disagreed with Robert Byrd on nearly everything, he did carry a copy of the Constitution with him at all times. Something we should all re-read on a yearly basis. After all it is the owners manual for our government.
Okay, that was funny. And I have fallen victim to it when pounding on a keyboard too many times to mention. Just another reason to remember humility.
What was really funny is that nobody else in the whole room even noticed as far as I could tell – except for those sitting at the table with me. We all chuckled. In the quietest and most polite way possible, of course.
You’re just more observant than most people! I know the difference between an article and an amendment (since I grew up back in the days when school kids actually studied the Constitution)… but I’m sorry to say that I can imagine myself looking at something like that and not noticing the error. I do things like that with embarrassing frequency — say one thing when I mean another, and I’m not even aware of it until someone points it out, and I say, “Did I really say that?”… usually following it up with, “Well, you knew what I meant!”
And I was trying not to be too snarky – but it was a combination of the individuals involved – many of whom I know quite well and they are pretty “in your face” about how they are so much more knowledgeable and committed to the Constitution than most of us mere mortals, the repeated mantra of the speakers that it was incumbent upon us to check, recheck, and check again to assure our credibility, and my own sense of irony. I couldn’t help myself.
The Devil made me do it!