Time Epic Fail

June 29, 2011 by
Filed under: American History, Media Bias, Politics 

In a recent article in the so-called “news weekly” Time about the Constitution of the United States of America, the author, who is also the Managing Editor, managed to make no less than thirteen (13) factual errors.

The Constitution is written in a fairly clear and straightforward manner, and has been the subject of much scholarly research. So for a ‘veteran’ reporter like Richard Stengel to make over one dozen errors in an article on the Constitution implies that he is either massively incompetent, or intentionally promoting an agenda that is not supported by the Constitution, which would require him to misrepresent the clear intent of the document.  The latter choice also implies that Mr. Stengel assumes that the majority of his readers have not read the Constitution, nor are they going to. A position also held by Rachel Maddow of the far left extremest “news” organization, MSNBC.

Aaron Worthing has an excellent article listing all thirteen (13) factual errors made by the Newsweek Managing Editor, Richard Stengel.  You should read the whole thing, which details exactly what is wrong in the article, and provides the correct facts.  I’m just going to list the thirteen (13) errors here.

  1. The Constitution does not limit the Federal Government.
  2. The Constitution is not law.
  3. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment emancipated the slaves.
  4. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment granted the right to vote to African Americans.
  5. The original Constitution declared that black people were to be counted as three-fifths of a person.
  6. That the original, unamended Constitution prohibited women from voting.
  7. Inter arma enim silent leges translates as “in time of war, the Constitution is silent.”
  8. The War Powers Act allows the president to unilaterally wage war for sixty days.
  9. We have only declared war five times.
  10. Alexander Hamilton wanted a king for America.
  11. Social Security is a debt within the meaning of Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  12. Naturalization depends on your birth.
  13. The Obamacare mandate is a tax.

You should do what Mr. Stengel clearly doesn’t want you to do, read the US Constitution. It’s not that long, and is written in clear English, unlike most legislation written today.

Update: The error count is still rising.

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Comments

3 Comments on Time Epic Fail

  1. Aaron Worthing on Wed, 29th Jun 2011 22:05

    2. hey, thanks for the praise, but actually it was Time magazine, not newsweek.

    feel free to delete this comment when the error is fixed.

    Also, a modified version is up at Big Journalism. And we are up to 14 errors!

  2. Mark Urbin on Wed, 29th Jun 2011 22:50

    3. Damn! That is what I get for posting before the first cup of coffee. Thanks for the Zen Slap of Enlightenment. Error corrected. I just had the one at least, not a baker’s dozen.

  3. Aaron Worthing on Wed, 29th Jun 2011 23:00

    4. Hey, i named the wrong circuit in a post on the 6th circuit court obamacare decision today. Go to patterico’s, look at the post on the decision and compare the title to the words in the url. 🙂

    Everyone makes mistakes. But 14 is ridiculous (yes, again, we are up to 14).

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