Truther "Corrections"

In the comments of my recent Truther Math post one of the troofers posts indignantly that they have since corrected the source of the article and thus I should update my post. Like it is somehow my job to monitor their sites to keep up on all the changes.

And figured you would be interested to know that Janice Matthews has updated it with links to the right sources, after I brought this to her attention (I'm on the Advisory Board).

He added:

You'll find that researchers and activists who are sincerely interested in truth and justice for 9/11 (and anything else) will correct errors and clean up mistakes when they're pointed out.

Erik Larson

OK, Erik, well you are going to have to have them run another "correction" because they still got it wrong. Here is the original claim (emphasis added):

This story was reported in the Guardian, a UK newspaper, on Veterans Day, November 11th. Why, during Veterans Week, wasn't it anywhere to be found in US newspapers? Why did only the San Francisco Chronicle pick up the AP article reporting the stunning fact that 18 Iraq War veterans commit suicide every day. Yes, that's EVERY DAY.

And here is their correction:

A reader has kindly brought to my attention an error in my original introduction: The SFGate link provided here does not reflect the statistic, "18 veterans per day commit suicide." I apparently linked to the wrong article, so I extend my apologies for less than exacting journalism--please allow me to direct readers to the horse's mouth. Please refer to this story regarding an ongoing investigation by CBS News, wherein Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health is quoted:

Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report."Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate," he said last November.But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later.He wrote: there "are about 18 suicides per day among America's 25 million veterans."That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, "is supported by the CBS numbers."

The problem is not just the sourcing, but that it was being factually misrepresented. The ironic thing is, I did a blog post on this subject over a year ago. What these idiots are missing is that this statistic is among all veterans, it even says so in the article they cite, not just those from Iraq. There are nearly 25 million veterans in this country, only about 1% of them served in the recent Iraq War.

Former Army paratrooper Michael Fumento also points out some flaws in this report, in an editorial in the New York Post, notably, that they do not compare these figures with those of equivalent demographics. Others have also pointed out that elderly men, who are heavily represented in the 25 million number commit suicide at a much higher rate. Claiming that some sick elderly WWII vet is a victim of the Iraq War, is dishonest to say the least.

I am awaiting your latest correction.