Not again.

Thanks a lot for the tip to Scott Warmuth (the same who originally spotted the Timrod phrases on Modern Times). He sent me this link to a Voice of America story that, by all appearances, recycles the misattributed and since retracted quote from the Christian Science Monitor which has Bob Dylan calling himself a “Jewish atheist.” In a story from Katherine Cole of the VOA Washington bureau, available in both text and audio on the website and presumably broadcast on the VOA radio service, this passage appears:

A decade later, the Jewish singer famously converted to Christianity, but has since been quoted as calling himself a “Jewish atheist.”

This of-course illustrates exactly why the original error was so serious. It was clear that — coming from an authoritative source like the CSM — the quote would be taken as gospel and would spread far and wide. Little did we know, however, how quickly it would be picked up by another highly authoritative international media organization. It may not be apparent to many Americans, but the Voice of America radio service is probably second only to the BBC World Service in terms of how many potential ears it can reach. All over the world, we must assume, people who know little else about this Bob Dylan guy will be hearing (from “A trusted source of news and information since 1942″) that he is an atheist.

So here we go again. I’ve e-mailed the generic address for the Washington bureau at VOANews@VOANews.com and also have sent the correction details to what I guessed Ms. Cole’s e-mail address would be (and it hasn’t been bounced back). I’ll continue looking for ways to contact relevant people at the VOA and seek a correction. Any one else who does likewise will be helping to speed the resolution of this.

Of-course, the problem wouldn’t have happened in the first place, and wouldn’t be happening again, if news outlets would simply not print or use completely unsourced quotes.

It boggles the mind.

…

Update 09/29/2006: Voice of America story corrected as of today

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Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

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• The Daily Atheist Update
• Correction now made to the Christian Science Monitor online as well
• (And still) Too Much Of Nothing from the Christian Science Monitor