Washington Post Writer Gets Tricked by the Drug Czar, Refuses to Accept Responsibility
It all started when Washington Post's Ashley III Halsey claimed that 11-16% of weekend motorists are on drugs:
The problem is, that's simply not what the drug czar or the survey said. The data reported on percentages of drivers who tested positive for having drugs in their system, which does not mean they were impaired behind the wheel. The NHTSA carefully explained this in their report:
Now, in fairness to Halsey, it was almost certainly the drug czar's intention to blur that distinction and ONDCP shares the blame when their devious press releases lead to factual distortions in the press. Nevertheless, when Pete Guither sent an email correcting the error, Halsey jettisoned all credibility by getting pissed and spewing insults:
Behold the unmatched maturity and professionalism of a staff writer at the venerable Washington Post. Confronted with a transparent and embarrassing error, he spits venom instead of attempting to correct or qualify his poor reporting. Halsey speaks of arrogance and ignorance even though he's the one refusing to admit mistakes and reporting on studies he hasn’t read and doesn’t understand.
As someone who's emailed corrections to a good number of journalists, I can honestly say I've never seen such a shameless and hostile response. Typically, a correction is made or not made and I get a "thanks for sharing" or I'm ignored. This, on the other hand, is so nasty that it would warrant managerial intervention even if Pete's suggestion weren't clearly correct. Seriously, whoever signs the checks at The Post should tell Ashley III Halsey not to act like this.
Other than that, the whole episode reminds me of basically every drug-related news story ever published prior to 2009. Maybe Halsey just missed the memo about drug reporting having to be accurate from now on.
Feds: Watch out for drivers high on drugs
As you idled at that busy intersection Saturday night, there's a pretty good chance another driver waiting for the light to change was high on illegal drugs.
About 11 percent of motorists are high on the weekend, and the number creeps up past 16 percent once night falls on Friday and Saturday, according to federal drug czar Gil Kerlikowske and a national roadside survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The problem is, that's simply not what the drug czar or the survey said. The data reported on percentages of drivers who tested positive for having drugs in their system, which does not mean they were impaired behind the wheel. The NHTSA carefully explained this in their report:
The reader is cautioned that drug presence does not necessarily imply impairment. For many drug types, drug presence can be detected long after any impairment that might affect driving has passed. For example, traces of marijuana can be detected in blood samples several weeks after chronic users stop ingestion. Also, whereas the impairment effects for various concentration levels of alcohol is well understood, little evidence is available to link concentrations of other drug types to driver performance.
Now, in fairness to Halsey, it was almost certainly the drug czar's intention to blur that distinction and ONDCP shares the blame when their devious press releases lead to factual distortions in the press. Nevertheless, when Pete Guither sent an email correcting the error, Halsey jettisoned all credibility by getting pissed and spewing insults:
Your arrogance and ignorance are impressive.
Behold the unmatched maturity and professionalism of a staff writer at the venerable Washington Post. Confronted with a transparent and embarrassing error, he spits venom instead of attempting to correct or qualify his poor reporting. Halsey speaks of arrogance and ignorance even though he's the one refusing to admit mistakes and reporting on studies he hasn’t read and doesn’t understand.
As someone who's emailed corrections to a good number of journalists, I can honestly say I've never seen such a shameless and hostile response. Typically, a correction is made or not made and I get a "thanks for sharing" or I'm ignored. This, on the other hand, is so nasty that it would warrant managerial intervention even if Pete's suggestion weren't clearly correct. Seriously, whoever signs the checks at The Post should tell Ashley III Halsey not to act like this.
Other than that, the whole episode reminds me of basically every drug-related news story ever published prior to 2009. Maybe Halsey just missed the memo about drug reporting having to be accurate from now on.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
Ashley III Halsey
Why not take a moment and let Ashley know how you feel..
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/ashley+halsey+iii/
Mr. Halsey probably not answering by now.
Perhaps it would be better to email The Washington Post's Ombudsman Andrew Alexander.
News Corp
Well, I shot an email to Ashley but, it probably won't do much. The Washington Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch and isn't this the kind of thing we expect from his corporation.
Not True
The Washington Post is owned by The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) and has nothing to do with Murdoch. Murdoch owns the NY Post and the Wall Street Journal, among others.
Sorry, mixed up Ny Post with
Sorry, mixed up Ny Post with WAPO. Thank you for the correction.
lot of deliberate conflating of impairment with traces of use
being done by drug warriors, in their inimitable demagogic style, to the point where 13 states, at last count, to my understanding, have criminalized driving while traces of an illegal drug remain in your system, long after you are under the influence of that substance. They are vindictive laws, directing attention away from the biggest threat, alcohol, and irrational laws, and it's a disgrace that the courts haven't struck them down for penalizing behavior unrelated to the stated purpose of the law. Stopping people from smoking a jay last night and driving today has nothing to do with keeping impaired drivers off the road today. There are no grounds, to put it mildly, for discriminating in alcohol's favor over cannabis, when it comes to trying to keep the roads safe.
Credit or Discredit
Here's a site where you can give credit or discredit to Ashley as a professional-or-not working journalist:
http://www.newscred.com/author/show/name/ashley-halsey-iii
That's a rather good idea Giordano
"Here's a site where you can give credit or discredit to Ashley as a professional-or-not working journalist:"
http://www.newscred.com/author/show/name/ashley-halsey-iii
It takes less than 30 seconds to sign up and vote. Just my humble vote alone dropped him from 98% to 97% CredRank.
With my vote
He's down to 93. something (only 7 discredits and 101 pro).
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
He's less than that now
He made a very serious false charge that many millions of Americans are driving around impaired when they're not, and continued to spew venom when confronted about it, and now he's being held to account a bit. Hopefully he'll be more careful and won't make such defamatory claims in the future.
He's down to 92.66 with 8 discredits!
I hope more people will discredit him.
This seems to be a trend for Assley...
Read this:
http://udothedishes.com/2009/09/an-open-letter-to-ashley-halsey-iii-and-...
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