PressEthic

A New York Times article this week addressed President Bush's recent change in semantic policy regarding the war in Iraq. According to White House press secretary Tony Snow, the famous phrase, "stay the course," is no longer part of the president's official lexicon. He told the Times,

“It left the wrong impression about what was going on and it allowed critics to say, ‘Well, here’s an administration that’s just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is,’ when, in fact, it is the opposite.”

Meanwhile, the president went even further to distance himself from the perception of inflexibility that is associated with the phrase. In an interview with on ABC's This Week, the president has this baffling exchange with George Stephanopoulos:

BUSH: I'm patient. I'm not patient forever. And I'm not patient with dawdling. But I recognize the degree of difficulty of the task and, therefore, we say to the American people, we won't cut and run. On the other hand, we'll constantly adjust our strategy --

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's exactly what I wanted to ask you about because [former Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush] James Baker says he's looking for something between --

BUSH: Cut and run --

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- cut and run and stay the course.

BUSH: Listen, we've never been stay the course, George. We have been -- we will complete the mission. We will do our job and help achieve the goal, but we're constantly adjusting to tactics.

Yes, the president did say, about his Iraq policy, "we've never been stay the course."

According to Media Matters,

Bush and other senior administration officials have repeatedly described the U.S. policy in Iraq as 'stay the course.' Bush began articulating his strategy for Iraq as 'stay the course' shortly after the war began in March 2003 and has persisted until very recently....

The last public use by the president of the phrase was August 31, 2006.

The Stephanopoulos piece was aired on October 22. The Times story was published on October 24. The neglect of the latter to mention the, "we were never stay the course," comment has drawn a lot of criticism. Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting comes down particularly heavy, asking, "What possible journalistic excuse can there be for this article's failure to mention that Bush recently lied about the phrase that is the article's subject?" FAIR links the case to a larger lack of objectivity, saying, "Given the lengths media have gone to to expose--and in some cases manufacture--double talk by Democratic politicians, it's hard to explain the inability to point out obvious falsehoods as anything but conscious bias."

It's reasonable to suspect that the "paper of record" seeks to avoid overtly labeling the president a liar. But does that justify this omission?